“Very seldom, Monsieur Goefle; but—”
“Well, well! And father Stenson—is there no way of seeing him? I must make the good old gentleman a little visit before I go over to the chateau. Is he as deaf as ever?”
“A great deal more so, Monsieur Goefle; he will not hear a single word you say.”
“Well, then, I will talk by signs.”
“But, Monsieur Goefle, the fact is my uncle don’t know you are here.”
“Ah, he doesn’t? Well, he will find it out.”
“He will scold me terribly for not having told him, and for having allowed you—”
“To do what? To lodge in this room, I suppose? Very well; tell him that I took possession without asking your permission.”
“Only imagine,” added M. Goefle, in French, to Christian, “that we are here unlawfully, and without the knowledge of M. Stenson, the overseer of the old chateau. And another very strange thing is, that the said Monsieur Sten, as well as his estimable nephew here present, are so convinced that the old ruin is haunted by unhappy and malevolent spirits, that they are very reluctant to live here at all.”
As he said this, M. Goefle’s smiling face became serious all at once, as if, though in the habit of laughing at such things, he really was reproaching himself for doing so; and he abruptly asked Christian if he believed in apparitions.