Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/435

 like it, certainly, above all things; but in spite of all my manœuvres, the business is not concluded. Besides, after due reflection, I am not much disappointed, for a thousand extraordinary things must take place in this house, which would singularly annoy a tenant who is fond of quiet."

God knows, dear reader, how my curiosity was roused by these words. I tried to make the man communicative; but all that I could learn from him, by questions, was, that the deserted house formerly belonged to the countess S, who now lived on her Estates, and had not been seen at this residence for several years. The house bore, besides, from time almost immemorial, the same appearance that it now did, and no one appeared to care to make the least repair to preserve it from impending ruin. Two lone beings inhabited it; an old servant and a disabled dog who barked incessantly. The people in the neighborhood were convinced that this old ruin was haunted by ghosts; for at certain times, and above all at the approach of Christmas, strange noises were heard to trouble the silence of the night; sometimes the uproar arose to a stunning discordance. On one single occasion the cracked voice of an old woman had tried to yelp a kind of song from the other world, in which was distinguished some French monosyllables mixed with an unknown language.

"Here sir," said the confectioner to me, leading me into his back shop, "look at this iron funnel which comes through the partition wall; I have sometimes seen, in the middle of summer, a tremendous smoke come out of it, as if they were making some hellish fire in the dilapidated house. I have more than once scolded the old servant, and told him that there was danger of a conflagration; but the sullen fellow pretends that it is the fire in his kitchen. Now, the devil alone knows what this being eats, for the smoke that comes from his cavern sometimes diffuses an odor which is very uninviting."

At this instant, the shop door opening, agitated a little sharp bounding bell. The confectioner excused himself for