As the day began with the above, and I had had a quiet rest, I
went to the copse at dusk. The moon was bright, and the twilight
lingered. We waited about in the avenue to let it get darker,
but it was still far from dark when we made our way up the
glen--Miss Moore, Miss Langton, and myself.
I saw "Ishbel" and "Marget" in the old spot across the burn.
"Ishbel" was on her knees in the attitude of weeping, "Marget"
apparently reasoning with her in a low voice, to which "Ishbel"
replied very occasionally. I could not hear what was said for
the noise of the burn. We waited for perhaps ten or fifteen
minutes. They had appeared when I had been there perhaps three
or four.
When we regained the avenue (in silence) Miss Moore asked Miss
Langton, "What did you see?" (She had been told nothing, except
that the Colonel, who did not know details then, had said in
her presence something about "a couple of nuns".) She said, "I
saw nothing, but I heard a low talking." Questioned further, she
said it seemed close behind. The glen is so narrow, that this
might be quite consistent with what I saw and heard. Miss Moore
heard a murmuring voice, and is quite certain it was not the
burn. She is less suggestible than almost any one I know.
The dog ran up while we were there, pointed, and ran straight
for the two women. He afterwards left us, and we found him
barking in the glen. He is a dog who hardly ever barks. We went
up among the trees where he was, and could find no cause.
Miss Moore and I moved into No. 8 (dressing-room No. 6). It is a
"suspect" room, which I had not tried, and Miss Moore had
scarcely slept all the week in No. 1, and was looking so worn
out, that I decided to move.
_February 17th, Wednesday._--A most glorious day, still, bright,
and sunny.
Nothing happened till evening. The Colonel, Mrs. W----, Miss
Langton, Miss Moore, and I were in the drawing-room after
dinner. Some of us, certainly the last four, heard footsteps
overhead in No. 1, which is just now disused. I was lying on the
sofa, and could not get up quickly: but Mrs. W---- and Miss
Langton ran up at once, and found it empty and dark, and no one
about.
Later, about 10.30, we all five heard the clang noise with which
some of us are so familiar. The servants had gone to bed--or so
we presumed, as all lights were out, except on the upper floor.
It occurred four times. It is of course conceivable they may
have made it, but we do not hear it when we know them to be
about, and we do hear it when we know them not to be about.
The following quotation is from Miss Langton's private diary:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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