THE MORTALS IN THE HOUSE.
Under none of the accredited ghostly circumstances, and environed by none of the conventional ghostly surroundings, did I first make acquaintance with the house which is the subject of this Christmas piece. I saw it in the daylight, with the sun upon it. There was no wind, no rain, no lightning, no thunder, no awful or unwonted circumstance of any kind, to heighten its effect. More than that: I had come to it direct from a railway station; it was not more than a mile distant from the railway station; and, as I stood outside the house, looking back upon the way I had come, I could see the goods train running smoothly along the embankment in the valley. I will not say that everything was utterly common-place, because I doubt if anything can be that, except to utterly commonplace people—and there my vanity steps in; but I will take it on myself to say that anybody might see the house as I saw it, any fine autumn morning.
The manner of lighting on it was this:
I was travelling toward London out of the north, intending to stop by the way to look at the house. My health required a temporary residence in the country; and a friend of mine who knew that, and who had happened to drive past the house, had written to me to suggest it as a likely place. I had got into the train at midnight,
- ↑ The original has eight chapters, which will be found in All the Year Round vol. ii., old series; but those not printed here, excepting a page at the close, were not written by Mr. Dickens.
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