There was, however, at least one very peculiar reason, which will be noticed presently, for supposing that this phantom was really intended to represent the late Rev. Mother Frances Helen, and that its inaccuracy was owing to the stupid, and rather melodramatic misconception in the mind which originally imagined it and transferred it to the witnesses at B——.
This is our arrangement for to-night:—
| Room | 1 (where we heard noises). Mr. F——. |
| " | 2. Dressing-room communicating with Nos. 1 and 3; doors opened between. |
| " | 3. Mr. L. F—— (specially "haunted"). |
| " | 4. Mr. MacP——. |
| " | 5. Mr. W——. |
| " | 6. Dressing-room, Miss Moore. |
| " | 7. Myself. |
| " | 8. Mr. C——. (Sounds alleged, see evidence.) |
| N.B.—Nothing is alleged against 4 and 5. | |
February 7th, Sunday.—Miss Moore was awakened this morning soon after one o'clock by a loud reverberating bang, which seemed close to her bed. She lay awake for a long time afterwards, but the sound was not repeated. The men heard nothing. They report that they went to bed soon after eleven, and very quietly.
My maid, who has had to give up her room, slept downstairs last night. She was kept awake nearly all night by noises and footsteps. The wing is not yet fit for use, as all the pipes are frozen, and the only downstairs bedroom was insufficiently aired; so I told her to use that for dressing, and make herself up a bed on one of the sitting-room sofas, and she slept (or rather, lay awake) in the drawing-room. She was not frightened, as she thought all the noises were made by the gentlemen; but they declare they made no noise.
I asked her as to the other servants. She says the maids are still very nervous. I spoke to them for the first time about the noises to-day. The butler's wife has heard sounds, but her husband only scoffs. The upper housemaid thinks ghosts the proper thing, and tolerates them along with the high families to which she is accustomed. The under housemaid is very shy, is Highland, and knows little English, and won't talk, but owns to discomfort, and is scoffed at by the other servants, who think it all part of her having been only a "general" till she came here. The kitchenmaid goes home to sleep, but I believe some one fetches her.
I have had a girl out of the village to make up the linen, and she, we notice, is careful to go home before dark.
This morning we all went to churches of various sorts. When the men came in to tea they reported that they had had a conversation with an outdoor servant, who proved to have been in the service of [Mr. F——'s father] Lord D——, and was consequently the more communicative. I know him, and have found him extremely intelligent.
He says that having heard from the H——s' butler (who slept on the dining-room floor, in the room my maid is to occupy to-night) that it was impossible to sleep in a room so noisy, he induced him to allow him to share his room, that they heard much, but they dared not show a light for fear of his admission being discovered (the H——s being much on the alert), and they saw nothing [[cf. p. 40] for evidence of the H——s' butler].
We did not like to send for him on a Sunday, but decided to have him in on Monday, and test him as to the intensity of the noise.