‘May I make bold enough to ask if you want a servant to go to Rushmere?’ he inquired of me in a whisper.
‘Certainly, we do. Our nurse has been obliged to leave us suddenly, and we want some one to supply her place.’
‘Then you may give it up as a bad job, sir; for you’ll never get one of the country people here about to set a foot in Rushmere—not if you were to live there till the day of your death.’
‘And why not?’ I demanded, with affected ignorance.
‘What! haven’t you heard nothing since you’ve been there, sir?’
‘Heard? What should I have heard, except the ordinary noises of the household?’
‘Well, you’re lucky if you’ve escaped so far,’ returned the landlord, mysteriously; ‘but it ain’t for long. No one who lives in Rushmere lives there alone. I can tell you the whole story if you like?’
‘I have no desire to listen to any such folly,’ I replied, testily. ‘I am not superstitious, and do not believe in supernatural sights or sounds. If the people round about here are foolish enough to do so, I cannot help it; but I will not have the minds of my wife or family imbued with their nonsense.’
‘Very good, sir; I hope you may be able to say as much two months hence,’ said the man, civilly.
And so we parted.