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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
185
THE
CREAKING
STAIR
A
lady
very
well
known
to
myself,
and
in
literary
society,
lived
as
a
girl
with
an
antiquarian
father
in
an
old
house
dear
to
an
antiquary.
It
was
haunted,
among
other
things,
by
footsteps.
The
old
oak
staircase
had
two
creaking
steps,
numbers
seventeen
and
eighteen
from
the
top.
The
girl
would
sit
on
the
stair,
stretching
out
her
arms,
and
count
the
steps
as
they
passed
her,
one,
two,
three,
and
so
on
to
seventeen
and
eighteen,
which
always
creaked.
{190}
In
this
case
rats
and
similar
causes
were
excluded,
though
we
may
allow
for
"expectant
attention".
But
this
does
not
generally
work.
When
people
sit
up
on
purpose
to
look
out
for
the
ghost,
he
rarely
comes;
in
the
case
of
the
"Lady
in
Black,"
which
we
give
later,
when
purposely
waited
for,
she
was
never
seen
at
all.
Discounting
imposture,
which
is
sometimes
found,
and
sometimes
merely
fabled
(as
in
the
Tedworth
story),
there
remains
one
curious
circumstance.
Specially
ghostly
noises
are
attributed
to
the
living
but
absent.
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