' Then she added in a
low mysterious voice, 'I hear that your brother Mr. Griffith Winslow
could not sleep there;' and when the rats and the wind were
mentioned--'Yes, that was what my poor dear uncle used to say. He
always called it nonsense; but we never had a servant who would
sleep there. You'll not mention it, Mr. Edward, but I could not
help asking that very nice housemaid, Jane, whether the room was
used, and she said how Mr. Griffith had given it up, and none of the
servants could spend a night there when they are sleeping round. Of
course I said all in my power to dispel the idea, and told her that
there was no accounting for all the noises in old houses; but you
never can reason with that class of people.'
'Did you ever hear the noises, Mrs. Selby?'
'Oh, no; I wouldn't sleep there for thousands! Not that I attach
any importance to such folly,--my poor dear uncle would never hear
of such a thing; but I am such a nervous creature, I should lie
awake all night expecting the rats to run over me. I never knew of
any one sleeping there, except in the gay times when I was a child,
and the house used to be as full as, or fuller than, it could hold,
for the hunt breakfast or a ball, and my poor aunt used to make up
ever so many beds in the two rooms, and then we never heard of any
disturbance, except what they made themselves.
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