The guests, though still agape with astonishment, pledged their resuscitated landlord, who thus proceeded in his story:--He had indeed now many more auditors than those to whom it was commenced, for Edith, having given certain necessary orders for arranging matters within the Castle, had followed the dead-alive up to the stranger's apartment attended by as many of the guests, male and female, as could squeeze into the small room, while others, crowding the staircase, caught up an erroneous edition of the story, and transmitted it still more inaccurately to those beneath, who again sent it forth to the vulgar without, in a fashion totally irreconcilable to the real fact.
A vendégek - bár még nem tértek magukhoz álmélkodásukból - sorra ürítették kupáikat feltámadott házigazdájuk egészségére, aki tüstént folytatta beszámolóját. Valójában most nagyobb hallgatósága volt, mint eleinte, mert Edith - miután kiadta a legszükségesebb rendel­kezéseket a háztartás dolgában - követte az élő halottat a vendégszobába.