“‘They—­who?’ I asked, affecting to smile.

“’Why, they who haunt the house, whoever they are.  I don’t mind them; I remember them many years ago, when I lived in this house, not as a servant; but I know they will be the death of me some day.  I don’t care—­I’m old, and must die soon anyhow; and then I shall be with them, and in this house still.’  The woman spoke with so dreary a calmness, that really it was a sort of awe that prevented my conversing with her further.  I paid for my week, and too happy were my wife and I to get off so cheaply.”

“You excite my curiosity,” said I; “nothing I should like better than to sleep in a haunted house.  Pray give me the address of the one which you left so ignominiously.”

My friend gave me the address; and when we parted, I walked straight towards the house thus indicated.

It is situated on the North side of Oxford Street (in a dull but respectable thoroughfare).  I found the house shut up—­no bill at the window, and no response to my knock.  As I was turning away, a beer-boy, collecting pewter pots at the neighboring areas, said to me, “Do you want any one at that house, sir?”

“Yes, I heard it was to be let.”

“Let!—­why, the woman who kept it is dead—­has been dead these three weeks, and no one can be found to stay there, though Mr. J——­ offered ever so much.  He offered mother, who chars for him, L1 a week just to open and shut the windows, and she would not.”

“Would not!—­and why?”

“The house is haunted:  and the old woman who kept it was found dead in her bed, with her eyes wide open.  They say the devil strangled her.”

“Pooh!—­you speak of Mr. J——.  Is he the owner of the house?”

“Yes.”

“Where does he live?”

“In G——­ Street, No. —.”

“What is he?—­in any business?”

“No, sir—­nothing particular; a single gentleman.”

I gave the pot-boy the gratuity earned by his liberal information, and proceeded to Mr. J——­, in G——­ Street, which was close by the street that boasted the haunted house.  I was lucky enough to find Mr. J——­ at home—­an elderly man, with intelligent countenance and prepossessing manners.

I communicated my name and my business frankly.  I said I heard the house was considered to be haunted—­that I had a strong desire to examine a house with so equivocal a reputation—­that I should be greatly obliged if he would allow me to hire it, though only for a night.  I was willing to pay for that privilege whatever he might be inclined to ask.  “Sir,” said Mr. J——­, with great courtesy, “the house is at your service, for as short or as long a time as you please.  Rent is out of the question—­the obligation will be on my side should you be able to discover the cause of the strange phenomena which at present deprive it of all value.  I cannot let it, for I cannot even get a servant to keep it in order or answer the door.