“And with that, she turned, gathered her skirt, and began to ascend the rest of the stairs.

“For an instant, the doctor considered that the sickness he had been called to attend within the House was not contained, as it were, to the attic story, but that it crept lightly long the halls and spoke through the teeth and lips of young women.

“‘Dr. Bates?’

“Nell Grange had paused at the top of that short flight, holding her light high. The doctor was forced to follow, and as soon as he had gained her position, she turned and illuminated the long, wide passageway of the second story. Stretched away from them was a hallway, richly carpeted and lined with several chamber doors, pulled to, their china knobs glowing in the dusk. At the far end of this passageway was the entrance to the third story, where the servants slept, and then from there a smaller set of stairs to the attic at the top of the house.

“The doctor needed a bit more time. ‘Before we proceed, Miss Grange, may I remark that you seem to differ with your sister about what has been taking place here?’

“‘Yes,’ Nell said.

“‘Has your mother ever heard anything—’

“‘Voices,’ she corrected.

“‘Yes. Has your mother heard voices before?’

“She set the candle down upon the hall table and crossed her arms. ‘Yes. Before this latest, there was a first. Six months ago.’

“‘I see,’ said the doctor, sitting himself down heavily upon the hall bench to pursue his thought. ‘Near the night your poor father drowned?’

“Nell nodded her head. ‘That very night.’

“The doctor sat looking down at the carpet under his feet, unable to train his mind on the problem.

“‘Dr. Bates,’ Nell Grange prodded.

“He lifted up his eyes and stared. For she had pressed her two hands against the wall, thumb-to-thumb, so the fingers spread out upon the paper. He started up.

“‘So you did note the smudges on the wall downstairs,’ she said slowly, and nodded as if satisfied. ‘One must stare down one’s horror, stare at it straight and look it in the eye, Dr. Bates. It is when one glances away that one is lost, for then the thing is loosed and it can creep round, playing in the mind with its soft, insistent fingers.’

“He forced his voice to speak. ‘And what is your horror?’

“‘There is something here.’ She looked up at the ceiling above their heads. ‘Someone.’

“‘Who?’

“‘I cannot say.’

“‘Why, then?’

“‘I do not know.’ And then, without another word, she picked the candle from its place and walked the length of that second story, pulling open the door to the stairs. The doctor and the daughter rose another flight in silence, then walked the deserted length of the servants’ quarters to the final stair. She pushed open the door at the bottom of the attic stairs and with her candle pointed him up to this last story.