damp--and what with the damp, and what with the dust and smoke-grime on
the pavement, our feet left a slight impression where we passed. And now
appeared the first strange phenomenon witnessed by myself in this
strange abode. I saw, just before me, the print of a foot suddenly form
itself, as it were. I stopped, caught hold of my servant, and pointed to
it. In advance of that footprint as suddenly dropped another. We both
saw it. I advanced quickly to the place; the footprint kept advancing
before me, a small footprint--the foot of a child: the impression was
too faint thoroughly to distinguish the shape, but it seemed to us both
that it was the print of a naked foot. This phenomenon ceased when we
arrived at the opposite wall, nor did it repeat itself on returning.

We remounted the stairs, and entered the rooms on the ground floor, a
dining parlour, a small back-parlour, and a still smaller third room
that had been probably appropriated to a footman--all still as death. We
then visited the drawing-rooms, which seemed fresh and new. In the front
room I seated myself in an armchair. F---- placed on the table the
candlestick with which he had lighted us. I told him to shut the door.
As he turned to do so, a chair opposite to me moved from the wall
quickly and noiselessly, and dropped itself about a yard from my own
chair, immediately fronting it.

"Why, this is better than the turning-tables," said I, with a
half-laugh--and as I laughed, my dog put back his head and howled.

F----, coming back, had not observed the movement of the chair. He
employed himself now in stilling the dog. I continued to gaze on the
chair, and fancied I saw on it a pale blue misty outline of a human
figure, but an outline so indistinct that I could only distrust my own
vision. The dog now was quiet. "Put back that chair opposite to me,"