Nutter's illness, and the causes of it, various stories
were current in Chapelizod. Some had heard it was a Blackamoor witch who
had evoked the foul fiend in bodily shape from the parlour cupboard, and
that he had with his cloven foot kicked her and Sally Nutter round the
apartment until then screams brought in Charles Nutter, who was smoking
in the garden; and that on entering, he would have fared as badly as the
rest, had he not had presence of mind to pounce at once upon the great
family Bible that lay on the window-sill, with which he belaboured the
infernal intruder to a purpose. Others reported 'twas the ghost of old
Philip Nutter, who rose through the floor, and talked I know not what
awful rhodomontade. These were the confabulations of the tap-room and
the kitchen; but the speculations and rumours current over the
card-table and claret glasses were hardly more congruous or
intelligible. In fact, nobody knew well what to make of it. Nutter
certainly had disappeared, and there was an uneasy feeling about him.
The sinister terms on which he and Sturk had stood were quite well
known, and though nobody spoke out, every one knew pretty well what his
neighbour was thinking of.
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