UNDER none of the accredited ghostly circumstances, and environed by none of theconventional ghostly surroundings, did I first make acquaintance with the house which isthe subject of this Christmas piece. I saw it in the daylight, with the sun upon it. There wasno 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 wasnot 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 alongthe embankment in the valley. I will not say that everything was utterly commonplace, because I doubt if anything can be that, except to utterly commonplace people-and theremy vanity steps in; but, I will take it on myself to say that anybody might see the house as Isaw it, any fine autumn morni