Prince (All Souls')

Prince is Sara Clayburn’s butler. She “inherited” him, together with Agnes, from her mother-in-law. Therefore, he is supposedly, just like Agnes, an elderly person. He appears to be competent in his job because, like Agnes, he “[…] knew exactly what to do”[1] after Sara’s accident. Furthermore, he is apparently responsible for the electricity at Whitegates because, after finding that the electricity was not working, Sara explains that he could fix a burned-out fuse. Together with the other servants Prince disappears from Whitegates on the All Souls’ Eve, leaving Sara all alone. According to the narrator’s description, he could possibly have attended a coven at midnight with the rest of the servants on that day. However, overall, he is an insignificant character whose purpose is to make Whitegates appear authentic.

[1] Edith Wharton, “All Souls’,” in: The Demanding Dead – More Stories of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. Peter Haining (London: Peter Owen Publishers, 2007), 184.