“This idea is not confined to the mountains.  I know many people in the capital who think with the Baroness,” said Edward.  “Although in a town such ideas, which belong more especially to the olden time, are more likely to be lost in the whirl and bustle which usually silences everything that is not essentially matter of fact.”

“Ah, yes, Lieutenant,” replied the Baron, smiling good-humoredly, “we keep up old customs better in the mountains.  You see that by our furniture.  People in the capital would call this sadly old-fashioned.”

“That which is really good and beautiful can never appear out of date,” rejoined Edward courteously; “and here, if I mistake not, presides a spirit that is ever striving after both.  I must confess, Baron, that when I first entered your house, it was this very aspect of the olden time that enchanted me beyond measure.”

“That is always the effect which simplicity has on every unspoiled mind,” answered Friedenberg:  “but townspeople have seldom a taste for such things.”

“I was partly educated on my father’s estate,” said Edward, “which was situated in the Highlands; and it appears to me as if, when I entered your house, I were visiting a neighbor of my father’s, for the general aspect is quite the same here as with us.”

“Yes,” said the chaplain, “mountainous districts have all a family likeness:  the same necessities, the same struggles with nature, the same seclusion, all produce the same way of life among mountaineers.”

“On that account the prejudice against the number thirteen was especially familiar to me,” replied Edward.  “We also dislike it; and we retain a consideration for many supernatural, or at least inexplicable things, which I have met with again in this neighborhood.”

“Yes, here, almost more than anywhere else,” continued the chaplain, “I think we excel all other mountaineers in the number and variety of our legends and ghost stories.  I assure you that there is not a cave or a church, or, above all, a castle, for miles round about, of which we could not relate something supernatural.”

The Baroness, who perceived the turn which the conversation was likely to take, thought it better to send the children to bed; and when they were gone, the priest continued, “Even here, in this castle—­”

“Here!” inquired Edward, “in this very castle?”

“Yes, yes!  Lieutenant,” interposed the Baron, “this house has the reputation of being haunted; and the most extraordinary thing is, that the matter cannot be denied by the skeptical, or accounted for by the reasonable.”

“And yet,” said Edward, “the castle looks so cheerful, so habitable.”

“Yes, this part which we live in,” answered the Baron; “but it consists of only a few apartments sufficient for my family and these gentlemen; the other portion of the building is half in ruins, and dates from the period when men established themselves on the mountains for greater safety.”