nine
o'clock
The whole family were now quite interested ; Mr. Otis began to suspect that he had been too dogmatic in his denial of the existence of ghosts , Mrs. Otis expressed her intention of joining the Psychical Society , and Washington prepared a long letter to Messrs. Myers and Podmore on the subject of the Permanence of Sanguineous Stains when connected with Crime . That night all doubts about the objective existence of phantasmata were removed for ever . The day had been warm and sunny ; and , in the cool of the evening , the whole family went out to drive . They did not return home till nine o'clock , when they had a light supper . The conversation in no way turned upon ghosts , so there were not even those primary conditions of receptive expectations which so often precede the presentation of psychical phenomena . The subjects discussed , as I have since learned from Mr. Otis , were merely such as form the ordinary conversation of cultured Americans of the better class , such as the immense superiority of Miss Fanny Devonport over Sarah Bernhardt as an actress ; the difficulty of obtaining green corn , buckwheat cakes , and hominy , even in the best English houses ; the importance of Boston in the development of the world-soul ; the advantages of the baggage-check system in railway travelling ; and the sweetness of the New York accent as compared to the London drawl . No mention at all was made of the supernatural , nor was Sir Simon de Canterville alluded to in any way .