Chapter 15

"I am sorry to say, miss, that the servants, all but two, have given notice and want to leave the house today. They have talked of the matter among themselves; the butler has spoken of the rest. How well they are, he says, willing to forfeit their pay, and even to pay their statutory obligations rather than of notice; but that is what they must do today.”

"What reason do they give?"

"Nothing, miss. They say how sorry they are, but they have nothing to say. Jane, the senior maid, asked the miss, who is not with the rest but stopped; and secretly told me they had an idea in their silly heads that the house was haunted!"

We should have laughed, but we didn't. I couldn't look Miss Trelawney in the face and laugh. Pain and horror did not show there a sudden attack of fear. There was a constant idea of which this was confirmation. To me, it was as if my brain had found a voice. But the sound was not perfect. Another thought, darker and