A house with old furniture has no need of guests to be haunted. As we have seen, Master Nathaniel was very sensitive to the silent things — stars, houses, trees; and often in his pipe-room, after the candles had been lit, he would sit staring at the bookshelves, the chairs, his father’s portrait — even at his red umbrella standing up in the corner, with as great a sense of awe as if he had been a star-gazer. But that night, the brooding invisible presences of the carved panels, the storied tapestries, affected even the hardheaded Master Ambrose.
