“And then you ran downstairs?”

“No. I thought I’d try another room, and shake it off. I says to myself, ‘I’ll go and walk slowly up and down the old man’s room three times, from end to end, and then I shall have conquered it.’ I went in with the candle in my hand; but the moment I came near the bed, the air got thick with them.”

“With the faces?”

“Yes, and I even felt that they were in the dark behind the side-door, and on the little staircase, floating away into the yard. Then, I called you.”

Mr. Boffin, lost in amazement, looked at Mrs. Boffin. Mrs. Boffin, lost in her own fluttered inability to make this out, looked at Mr. Boffin.