'
Mr. Prosser being, I've heard, a hard-headed and conceited sort of
fellow, scouted the ghost, and sneered at the fears of his family. He
was privately of opinion that the whole affair was a practical joke or a
fraud, and waited an opportunity of catching the rogue _flagrante
delicto_. He did not long keep this theory to himself, but let it out by
degrees with no stint of oaths and threats, believing that some domestic
traitor held the thread of the conspiracy.
Indeed it was time something were done; for not only his servants, but
good Mrs. Prosser herself, had grown to look unhappy and anxious. They
kept at home from the hour of sunset, and would not venture about the
house after night-fall, except in couples.
The knocking had ceased for about a week; when one night, Mrs. Prosser
being in the nursery, her husband, who was in the parlour, heard it
begin very softly at the hall-door. The air was quite still, which
favoured his hearing distinctly. This was the first time there had been
any disturbance at that side of the house, and the character of the
summons was changed.
Mr. Prosser, leaving the parlour-door open, it seems, went quietly into
the hall.
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