word), however odd, rather than embrace at once the notion of
ghosts and hobgoblins we imbibed in our nurseries. Still, to my
unfortunate house, the evil is the same. What on earth can I do
with the house?"

"I will tell you what I would do. I am convinced from my own
internal feelings that the small, unfurnished room at right angles
to the door of the bedroom which I occupied, forms a starting point
or receptacle for the influences which haunt the house; and I
strongly advise you to have the walls opened, the floor removed,--
nay, the whole room pulled down. I observe that it is detached
from the body of the house, built over the small backyard, and
could be removed without injury to the rest of the building."

"And you think, if I did that--"

"You would cut off the telegraph wires. Try it. I am so persuaded
that I am right, that I will pay half the expense if you will allow
me to direct the operations."

"Nay, I am well able to afford the cost; for the rest allow me to
write to you."

About ten days after I received a letter from Mr. J---- telling me
that he had visited the house since I had seen him; that he had
found the two letters I had described, replaced in the drawer from
which I had taken them; that he had read them with misgivings like
my own; that he had instituted a cautious inquiry about the woman
to whom I rightly conjectured they had been written. It seemed
that thirty-six years ago (a year before the date of the letters)