entirely different kind of noise.  She walked now fast, and now slowly, but both footsteps seemed always of the same weight; and (3), and this, to my mind, was most important, we heard her quite distinctly going from X to Y, and back again from Y to X and could tell in which direction she was moving.  Now, the noise which I had heard only went in the one direction, i.e., parallel to the maid’s outward progress.  I did not hear anything going in the other direction.  I was entirely wakened by the noise which I had heard, and, as I have said, I continued to listen intently for some considerable time, and yet I heard nothing.

“In short, alike from its apparent locus, from its quality, and from the direction of its movements, I am convinced that the noise which I heard was not caused by any of the servants moving about upstairs.

“Anybody who knows the house will understand that where the noise seemed to me to be was in the neighbourhood of the dome.  For all I know, the dome, as somebody suggested, may be a regular sounding-board; but even so, that does not help much towards an explanation.  Wherever the noise may have been produced, the question still remains, ‘What produced it?’ and that we have entirely failed to answer.”

* * * * *

The gist of this account was communicated by Mr. MacP——­ to the Hon. E——­ F——­, who replied as follows on April 19, 1897:  “Do you appreciate the fact that your ghost, with the footsteps of alternate lowness and softness, is absolutely correct, and corresponds with Miss H——­’s ghost, as I heard it from Mrs. G——­ lately in town.  Miss H——­ slept, I think, in No. 4 [this is wrong; cf. p. 124], and was wakened by the sound of walking round her bed with a peculiar limp.  Much alarmed, she went and called her brother, who came and slept on the sofa (is there a sofa in No. 4?), and shortly afterwards they both heard the same noise again.”

Mr. MacP——­, as already mentioned, did not know that this noise had been heard by any one.

Miss “Duff” thus describes her next night:  “Having heard nothing unusual all day, I went to bed quite disappointed.  However, I was to be again awakened, and this time by a loud crash at my door, which resounded for some time.  I lit a candle, but nothing had fallen in my room to account for the sound.

“I began to think I might be mistaken as to the direction of the noise, and that it might have been caused by a large piece of coal falling in the fender.  I went to look, but there was no coal at all, only the dying embers in the fire.  I soon fell asleep again, only to be again awakened by a similar crash (although not so loud), and this time between the washstand and the window.  I kept awake till morning, and heard nothing more.” [We had carefully concealed from Miss “Duff” the nature of the usual phenomena of this room.]

   March 23rd, Tuesday.—­Mr. L——­ and his friend Captain B——­
   arrived.