“M. Meurice tells me he feels that H. B. very often tries to make himself visible to him; when he fails to do so, he hears him say impatiently: ‘Thut! thut! thut!’—a curious coincidence, for this was a most characteristic habit of H. B.’s when impatient.
“From that time the personification H. B. has continued to mingle actively in our medium’s life. His intervention is manifested daily. It would be impossible to give a full account of this personification’s manifestations; I will simply confine myself to indicating the principal. It is to be pointed out, first of all, that H. B. appears literally to ‘haunt’ M. Meurice’s house, especially the room above the latter’s bedroom.[22]
“The phenomena are of several kinds:—
“1. Footsteps.
- “(a) A loud, quick, decided footstep, which M. Meurice attributes to the personification Chappe.
- “(b) An unequal step, as though one leg rested more heavily than the other; the imitation which M. Meurice made before me of this step recalled to my mind H. B.’s step.
- “(c) A slow step as of a person who dragged his feet along: a movement attributed by M. Meurice to, and which I recognised as characteristic of, one of my deceased friends.[23]
- “(d) A quick, light step, like the step of a big bird.
“These footsteps are heard in the corridor of the second story of the house; a story which is not inhabited. Then the door of a bedroom, immediately above M. Meurice’s bedroom, seems to open and the footsteps resound in the room. M. Meurice has often got up—these noises occur at about two o’clock in the early morning—but he has never seen anything or any one.
“The same noises are also heard in M. Meurice’s own bedroom.
“2. The opening of doors and windows.
“Before hearing footsteps in the bedroom on the second floor, M. Meurice hears the door of that room open. The noise of the opening of the door is always preceded by a noise similar to that made by a hand searching in the dark for the door handle.