X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



fantastic tricks as were sufficient to turn white the hair of 

 those she visited in the small hours of the night. 



" Had we lived in the days of ' spiritualism' we should have 

 been firm believers in its mysteries. The old Hall with its 

 desolate garrets, darkened windows, worm-eaten floors, closed- 

 up staircase and secret recesses might have harbored a legion 

 of ghosts — and as for rappings, we heard plenty of them. The 

 maid-servants, who slept on the upper floor, where stood the 

 huge mangle in its oaken frame (it took the strong arm of the 

 gardener to turn the crank), declared that it worked by itself, 

 the great linen rollers being turned without hands unless it 

 were by those of ghosts. No doubt the restless little woman in 

 grey had been a notable housewife in her time, and could not 

 remain idle even after being in her grave for a century or more. 



" To relieve the tedium of the dull winter days, Susan and 

 I formed the brilliant notion of writing a novel and amusing 

 ourselves by reading aloud at night what had been written 

 during the day. But where should we find paper 1 We had 

 no pocket-money, and even if we had been amply supplied 

 there was no place within our reach where we could purchase 

 the means of carrying out our literary ambitions. Enthusiastic 

 genius is not easily daunted, and fortune favored us. In the 

 best room there was a great Indian papier-mache chest with 

 massive brass hinges and locks. It had contained the ward- 

 robe of a young Indian prince who had been sent to England 

 with an embassy to the Court of one of the Ge'orges. This 

 chest was large enough to fill the space between the two 

 windows, and hold the large rosewood' and bamboo cot with 

 its hangings of stiff cream-white brocaded silk embroidered 

 with bunches of roses, the colors still brilliant and unfaded, 

 alternating with strips worked in gold and silver thread. The 

 four curtains of this luxuriant tented cot were looped with 

 thick green ribbons. There were ancient damasks, silks, old 

 court dresses that had belonged to some grande dame of 

 Queen Anne's reign, and turbans of the finest India muslin 



