The names of
persons and places are all fictitious, and are the same as those used
in the documents published by the S.P.R.
HALF-PAST ONE O'CLOCK
In October, 1893, I was staying at a town which we shall call
Rapingham. One night I and some kinsfolk dined with another old
friend of all of us, a Dr. Ferrier. In the course of dinner he asked
a propos de bottes:--
"Have you heard of the ghost in Blake Street?" a sunny, pleasant
street of respectable but uninteresting antiquity in Rapingham.
We had none of us heard of the ghost, and begged the doctor to
enlighten our ignorance. His story ran thus--I have it in his own
writing as far as its essence goes:--
"The house," he said, "belongs to my friends, the Applebys, who let
it, as they live elsewhere. A quiet couple took it and lived in it
for five years, when the husband died, and the widow went away. They
made no complaint while tenants. The house stood empty for some time,
and all I know personally about the matter is that I, my wife, and the
children were in the dining-room one Sunday when we heard unusual
noises in the drawing-room overhead.
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