The prosperity of his theatre was his one serious object in life.

'I may be on the trace of another "Corsican Brothers,"' he thought.

'A new piece of that sort would be ten thousand pounds in my pocket, at least.' With these motives (worthy of the single-hearted devotion to dramatic business which made Francis a successful manager) he related, without further hesitation, what his own experience had been, and what the experience of his relatives had been, in the haunted hotel.

He even described the outbreak of superstitious terror which had escaped Mrs.
Norbury's ignorant maid.

'Sad stuff, if you look at it reasonably,' he remarked.