This set all things to rights, particularly when the chambermaids
declared that they had all witnessed strange carryings on in that
room; - and as they declared this "upon their honors," there could not
remain a doubt upon the subject.
"And did your grandfather go to bed again in that room?" said the
inquisitive gentleman.
"That's more than I can tell. Where he passed the rest of the night was
a secret he never disclosed. In fact, though he had seen much service,
he was but indifferently acquainted with geography, and apt to make
blunders in his travels about inns at night, that it would have puzzled
him sadly to account for in the morning."
"Was he ever apt to walk in his sleep?" said the knowing old gentleman.
"Never that I heard of."
THE ADVENTURE OF THE MYSTERIOUS PICTURE.
As one story of the kind produces another, and as all the company
seemed fully engrossed by the topic, and disposed to bring their
relatives and ancestors upon the scene, there is no knowing how many
more ghost adventures we might have heard, had not a corpulent old
fox-hunter, who had slept soundly through the whole, now suddenly
awakened, with a loud and long-drawn yawn. The sound broke the charm;
the ghosts took to flight as though it had been cock-crowing, and there
was a universal move for bed.
"And now for the haunted chamber," said the Irish captain, taking his
candle.
"Aye, who's to be the hero of the night?" said the gentleman with the
ruined head.
"That we shall see in the morning," said the old gentleman with the
nose: "whoever looks pale and grizzly will have seen the ghost."
"Well, gentlemen," said the Baronet, "there's many a true thing said in
jest. In fact, one of you will sleep in a room to-night - "
"What - a haunted room? a haunted room? I claim the adventure - and
I - and I - and I," cried a dozen guests, talking and laughing at the
same time.
"No - no," said mine host, "there is a secret about one of my rooms on
which I feel disposed to try an experiment. So, gentlemen, none of you
shall know who has the haunted chamber, until circumstances reveal it.
I will not even know it myself, but will leave it to chance and the
allotment of the housekeeper. At the same time, if it will be any
satisfaction to you, I will observe, for the honor of my paternal
mansion, that there's scarcely a chamber in it but is well worthy of
being haunted."
We now separated for the night, and each went to his allotted room.
Mine was in one wing of the building, and I could not but smile at its
resemblance in style to those eventful apartments described in the
tales of the supper table.
