At last he said that rumour had it that a huntsman's family had either been murdered or had committed suicide there, and, ever since, nobody dwelling in the district could be persuaded to cross its threshold, let alone steal anything out of it; they would not even take shelter there during a storm, for they believed that an evil spirit dwelt there.
Henrietta, however, did not believe in these invisible evil spirits.

The evil spirits she was acquainted with all went about in dress clothes and surtouts.

The atmosphere of mystery and enchantment which made the little house uninhabitable only stimulated her fancy.

She determined to discover whether it was really uninhabited or not.
Accordingly, when she entered the house for the third time, she plucked a wild rose and threw one of its buds into the pitcher of water on the table, a second on the bear skin coverlet of the bed and a third, fourth and fifth she stuck into the barrels of the muskets hanging up in the armour room.
When now, she visited the lonely house for the fourth time, she looked for the rose buds and could not find one of them in the places where she had put them.

Consequently there must needs be someone who slept in the bed, drank the fresh water from the pitcher and used the firearms.
Her thirst for knowledge now induced her to enquire of her husband concerning this little dwelling and he, then and there, elucidated the mystery.
It was quite true that a lonely inhabitant of this house had once been murdered there, that the common people believed it to be haunted, and that consequently not one of them would cross its threshold at any price either by day or by night.