"Mother," he asked, one evening, when Madam Passmore had been lamenting the sad fact that things wore out much sooner than when she was a girl, "had you ever any of that fine carved furniture like Madam Harvey's?" "No, my dear, not a bit," said his mother. "Bell," he asked, on another occasion, "do you ever hear rats or mice in your wainscot?" "Oh, they tease me infinitely!" answered Isabella. "They make noises behind the wainscot till I cannot sleep, and for the last week I have put cotton wool in my ears to keep out the sound." "Cicely," he inquired, lastly, "did you ever see a ghost?" "No, Master Harry, I never have," replied Cicely, mysteriously, thus hinting that there might be some people who had done so. "I never see one, nor never want. But they do haunt old houses, that's a truth." "How do you know that if you never saw one?" laughed Harry. "Well, my dear!" exclaimed Cicely, "if you'd a been down with me in the scullery one night last week--I couldn't sleep, and I went down for to get a bit of victuals, and washed my hands in the scullery--I say, if you'd a-heard the din they made over my head, you might have thought somewhat." "Who made it, Cicely?" "Them!" said Cicely, in a mysterious whisper. "Nay, I never saw none, but my grandmother's aunt's mother-in-law, she did." "Ah! she is a good way off us," said Harry, satirically. "But you know, this house is rather too new for ghosts. A fine old castle, now, with all manner of winding stairs and secret passages--that would be the place to see a ghost." "Eh! my dear, don't you give me the horrors!" cried Cicely. "Why, I could never sleep in my bed if I lived in a place where them secret places and such was--no, never lie quiet, I couldn't! Nay, Master Harry, nobody never seed no ghosteses in this house. I've lived here eight-and-twenty year come Martlemas, and I ought to know." "And pray, Cicely, who was your great-grandmother's first cousin's niece, or whatever she were? and what did she see?" "My grandmother's aunt's mother-in-law, Master," corrected Cicely. "She see a little child in a white coat." "How very extraordinary!" commented Harry gravely. "Master Harry, I'm certain sure you don't believe a word of it, for all you look so grave," said old Cicely, shaking her head sorrowfully. "I can't say that I do at present. But you see I have not heard the particulars yet."