woman who had visited his room on the night of his arrival as
instantaneously to impress me with the conviction that she must be the
identical person. She was a square, short woman, dressed in soiled and
tattered clothes, scarred and pitted with small-pox, and blind of an
eye. She stepped hurriedly into the little enclosure, and peered from a
distance of a few yards into the room where I was sitting. I felt that
now was the moment to clear the matter up; but there was something
stealthy in the manner and look of the woman which convinced me that I
must not appear to notice her until her retreat was fairly cut off.
Unfortunately, I was suffering from a lame foot, and could not reach the
bell as quickly as I wished. I made all the haste I could, and rang
violently to bring up the servant Smith. In the short interval that
intervened, I observed the woman from the window, who having in a
leisurely way, and with a kind of scrutiny, looked along the front
windows of the house, passed quickly out again, closing the gate after
her, and followed a lady who was walking along the footpath at a quick
pace, as if with the intention of begging from her. The moment the man
entered I told him--"the blind woman you described to me has this
instant followed a lady in that direction, try to overtake her." He was,
if possible, more eager than I in the chase, but returned in a short
time after a vain pursuit, very hot, and utterly disappointed. And,
thereafter, we saw her face no more.

All this time, and up to the period of our leaving the house, which was
not for two or three months later, there occurred at intervals the only
phenomenon in the entire series having any resemblance to what we hear
described of "Spiritualism." This was a knocking, like a soft hammering
with a wooden mallet, as it seemed in the timbers between the bedroom
ceilings and the roof. It had this special peculiarity, that it was
always rythmical, and, I think, invariably, the emphasis upon the last