and blood, can it now?"

"Well, my friend, we'll try the question, however, very soon," said my
father.

I must own, Charles, I again began to feel a little queer, and I think
papa noticed it, for he told me to please myself as to going with him
or staying at the inn. I was nervous, though I felt sure nothing could
really harm me, and then, I recollected, I should always repent, if my
courage failed me, so I said boldly out,

"I shall certainly go with you, papa."

"Very well, my son, but even now, if you had rather stay behind, I do
promise not to reflect on you afterwards, therefore, act just as your
feelings prompt you. I am, myself, so fully persuaded that not
anything supernatural can or will harm us, that I am determined to
find out what can have led to such extraordinary reports."

"But papa, do you not think ghosts are sometimes to be seen?"

"Frederic," said he, "I will not pretend to say what a guilty
conscience or over-heated imagination may have conjured up and
fancied, but as I have neither, I do not expect to see anything
supernatural; but, as I said before, having heard so much about the
mysteries of this place, I think, that even had I not made the
purchase, I should like to find them out."

"But if you see the ghost, papa, will you then believe in such
things?"