WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:05.440 Section twelve of the Best Ghost Stories. This is a 2 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:10.039 LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. 3 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:15.519 For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. 4 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:22.160 Read by Winnifred Asman, The Best Ghost Stories, The Interval 5 00:00:22.359 --> 00:00:30.199 by Vincent O'Sullivan from the Boston Evening Transcript. Missus Wilton 6 00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:33.119 passed through a little alley leading from one of the 7 00:00:33.159 --> 00:00:37.039 gates which are around Regent's Park, and came out on 8 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:41.679 the wide and quiet street. She walked along slowly, peering 9 00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:45.439 anxiously from side to side so as not to overlook 10 00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:50.280 the number. She pulled her furs closer round her. After 11 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:55.600 her years in India, this London damp seemed very harsh still. 12 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:59.359 It was not a fog to day. A dense haze, 13 00:00:59.719 --> 00:01:04.400 gray and tinged ruddy lay between the houses, sometimes blowing 14 00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:08.359 with a little wet kiss against the face. Missus Wilton's 15 00:01:08.439 --> 00:01:12.879 hair and eyelashes, and her furs were powdered with tiny drops, 16 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:15.760 but there was nothing in the weather to blur the sight. 17 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:19.400 She could see the faces of people some distance off, 18 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:25.280 and read the signs on the shops. Before the door 19 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:28.560 of a dealer in antiques and second hand furniture. She 20 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:32.079 paused and looked through the shabby, uncleaned window at an 21 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:36.640 unassorted heap of things, many of them of great value. 22 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:39.519 She read the Polish name fastened on the pane with 23 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:45.519 white letters. Yes, this is the place. She opened the door, 24 00:01:45.879 --> 00:01:50.599 which met her entrance with an ill tempered jangle. From 25 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:53.599 somewhere in the black depths of the shop, the dealer 26 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:57.159 came forward. He had a clammy white face with a 27 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.879 sparse black beard, and wore a skull cap and spectacles. 28 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:05.879 Missus Wilton spoke to him in a low voice. A 29 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:11.080 look of complicity, cunning, perhaps of irony, passed through the 30 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:17.639 dealer's cynical and sad eyes, but he bowed gravely and respectfully. Yes, 31 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:20.919 she is here, madam. Whether she will see you or not, 32 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:24.039 I do not know. She is not always well. She 33 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:27.360 has her moods, and then we have to be so careful. 34 00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:30.879 The police, not that they would touch a lady like you, 35 00:02:31.479 --> 00:02:34.080 But the poor alien has not much chance these days. 36 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:39.000 Missus Wilton followed him to the back of the shop, 37 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.719 where there was a winding staircase. She knocked over a 38 00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:45.879 few things in her passage and stooped to pick them up, 39 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:49.560 but the dealer kept muttering, It does not matter, surely, 40 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:54.000 it does not matter. He lit a candle. You must 41 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:56.840 go up these stairs. They are very dark. Be careful. 42 00:02:57.400 --> 00:02:59.439 When you come to a door, open it and go 43 00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:03.319 straight in. He stood at the foot of the stairs, 44 00:03:03.439 --> 00:03:06.520 holding the light high above his head, and she ascended. 45 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:11.120 The room was not very large, and it seemed very ordinary. 46 00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:16.879 There were some flimsy, uncomfortable chairs in gilt and red. 47 00:03:17.240 --> 00:03:21.240 Two large palms were in corners. Under a glass cover. 48 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:24.639 On the table was a view of Rome. The room 49 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:28.400 had not a business like look, thought Missus Wilton. There 50 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:31.800 was no suggestion of the office or waiting room where 51 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:34.800 people came and went all day. Yet you would not 52 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:37.800 say that it was a private room which was lived in. 53 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:42.199 There were no books or papers about. Every chair was 54 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:44.919 in the place it had been placed when the room 55 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:48.400 was last swept. There was no fire, and it was 56 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:51.960 very cold. To the right of the window was a 57 00:03:52.039 --> 00:03:56.400 door covered with a plush curtain. Missus Wilton sat down 58 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:00.319 near the table and watched this door. He thought it 59 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:03.159 must be through it that the soothsayer would come forth. 60 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:07.360 She laid her hands listlessly. One on top of the 61 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:10.919 other on the table. This must be the tenth seer 62 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:15.039 she had consulted since Hugh had been killed, she thought 63 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:18.920 them over. No, this must be the eleventh. She had 64 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:22.439 forgotten that frightening man in Paris who said he had 65 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:25.759 been a priest. Yet, of them all, it was only 66 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:29.759 he who had told her anything definite. But even he 67 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:33.079 could do no more than tell the past. He told 68 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:36.680 of her marriage, He even had the duration of it right, 69 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:41.600 twenty one months. He told too, of their time in India. 70 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:45.040 At least he knew that her husband had been a soldier, 71 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:48.639 and he said he had been on service in the colonies. 72 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:53.399 On the whole, though he had been as unsatisfactory as 73 00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:56.839 the others, none of them had given her the consolation 74 00:04:57.040 --> 00:05:00.680 she sought. She did not want to be told the past. 75 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:04.199 If Hugh was gone forever, then with him had gone 76 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:08.120 all her love of living, her courage, all her betterself. 77 00:05:09.079 --> 00:05:13.240 She wanted to be lifted out of the despair, the dazed, aimless, 78 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:16.759 drifting from day to day, longing at night for the 79 00:05:16.839 --> 00:05:19.240 morning and in the morning for the fall of night, 80 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:23.560 which had been her life since his death. If somebody 81 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:26.279 could assure her that it was not all over, that 82 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:30.439 he was somewhere not too far away, unchanged from what 83 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:34.040 he had been here, with his crisp hair and rather 84 00:05:34.199 --> 00:05:38.959 slow smile and lean brown face, that he saw her sometimes, 85 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:45.959 that he had not forgotten her, Oh, Hugh Darling. When 86 00:05:45.959 --> 00:05:48.759 she looked up again, the woman was sitting there before her. 87 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:52.839 Missus Wilton had not heard her come in. With her 88 00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:56.480 experience wide enough now of seers and fortune tellers of 89 00:05:56.519 --> 00:06:00.519 all kinds, she saw at once that this woman different 90 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:04.720 from the others. She was used to the quick appraising look, 91 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:10.399 the attempts, sometimes clumsy, but often cleverly disguised, to collect 92 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:15.040 some fragments of information, whereupon to erect a plausible vision. 93 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:18.040 But this woman looked as if she took it out 94 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:23.079 of herself. Not that her appearance suggested intercourse with the 95 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:27.839 spiritual world more than the others had done. It suggested that, 96 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:33.120 in fact, considerably less. Some of the others were frail, yearning, 97 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:37.199 evaporated creatures, and the ex priest in Paris had something 98 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:41.439 terrible and condemned in his look. He might well sup 99 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:44.120 with the devil that man, and probably did in some 100 00:06:44.279 --> 00:06:48.759 way or other. But this was a little fat, weary 101 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:52.160 faced woman about fifty, who only did not look like 102 00:06:52.199 --> 00:06:55.680 a cook because she looked more like sempstress. Her black 103 00:06:55.759 --> 00:07:00.160 dress was all covered with white threads. Missus Wilton looked 104 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:03.720 at her with some embarrassment. It seemed more reasonable to 105 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:06.399 be asking a woman like this about altering a gown 106 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:10.920 than about intercourse with the dead. That seemed even absurd 107 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:15.560 in such a very commonplace presence. The woman seemed timid 108 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:20.519 and oppressed. She breathed heavily and kept rubbing her dingy hands, 109 00:07:20.519 --> 00:07:24.519 which looked moist one over the other. She was always 110 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:27.800 wetting her lips and coughed with a little dry cough. 111 00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:32.959 But in her these signs of nervous exhaustion suggested overwork 112 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:38.519 in a close atmosphere, bending too close over the sewing machine, 113 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:42.720 Her uninteresting hair, like a rat's pelt, was eaked out 114 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:46.240 with a false edition of another color. Some threads had 115 00:07:46.279 --> 00:07:51.600 got into her hair too. Her harried, uneasy look caused 116 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:56.000 missus Wilton to ask compassionately, are you much worried by 117 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:00.720 the police? Oh, the police? Why don't they us alone? 118 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:03.360 You never know who comes to see you? Why don't 119 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:05.759 they leave me alone? I'm a good woman. I only 120 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:08.000 think what I do, is no harm to any one, 121 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:14.040 she continued in an uneven, querulous voice, always rubbing her 122 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:17.600 hands together nervously. She seemed to the visitor to be 123 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:21.720 talking at random, just gabbling, like children do sometimes before 124 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:26.639 they fall asleep. I wanted to explain hesitated, missus Wilton, 125 00:08:27.319 --> 00:08:29.959 But the woman, with her head pressed close against the 126 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:33.000 back of the chair, was staring beyond her at the wall. 127 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:37.679 Her face had lost whatever little expression it had. It 128 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:41.600 was blank and stupid. When she spoke, it was very slowly, 129 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:46.519 and her voice was guttural. Can't you see him? It 130 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:49.679 seems strange to me that you can't see him. He 131 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:52.879 is so near you. He is passing his arm round 132 00:08:52.919 --> 00:08:58.679 your shoulders. This was a frequent gesture of Hughes, and indeed, 133 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:01.879 at that moment she felt that somebody was very near her, 134 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:06.879 bending over her. She was enveloped in tenderness. Only a 135 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:11.159 very thin veil, she felt prevented her from seeing. But 136 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:16.200 the woman saw. She was describing Hugh minutely, even the 137 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:20.279 little things like the burn on his right hand. Is 138 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:24.279 he happy? Oh? Ask him? Does he love me? The 139 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:27.159 result was so far beyond anything she had hoped for 140 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:30.440 that she was stunned, she could only stammer the first 141 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:33.159 thing that came into her head. Does he love me? 142 00:09:34.559 --> 00:09:37.399 He loves you? He won't answer, but he loves you. 143 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:41.480 He wants me to make you see him. He is disappointed, 144 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:44.399 I think, because I can't. But I can't unless you 145 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:49.159 do it yourself. After a while, she said, I think 146 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:52.039 you will see him again. You think of nothing else. 147 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:57.000 He is very close to us now. Then she collapsed 148 00:09:57.080 --> 00:10:00.000 and fell into a heavy sleep and lay there motionless, 149 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:04.279 hardly breathing. Missus Wilton put some notes on the table 150 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:09.600 and stole out on tiptoe. She seemed to remember that downstairs, 151 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:12.240 in the dark shop, the dealer with the waxen face 152 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:15.480 detained her to show some old silver and jewelry and 153 00:10:15.559 --> 00:10:19.000 such like, But she did not come to herself. She 154 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:22.600 had no precise recollection of anything till she found herself 155 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:26.960 entering a church near Portland Place. It was an unlikely 156 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:30.759 act in her normal moments. Why did she go in there? 157 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:35.399 She acted like one walking in her sleep. The church 158 00:10:35.559 --> 00:10:39.399 was old and dim, with high black pews. There was 159 00:10:39.399 --> 00:10:43.159 nobody there. Missus Wilton sat down in one of the 160 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:46.879 pews and bent forward with her face in her hands. 161 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:50.840 After a few minutes she saw that a soldier had 162 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:54.480 come in noiselessly and placed himself about half a dozen 163 00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:58.759 roads ahead of her. He never turned round, but presently 164 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:03.039 she was struck by some familiar in the figure. First 165 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:06.000 she thought vaguely that the soldier looked like her Hugh. 166 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:09.320 Then when he put up his hand, she saw who 167 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:13.639 it was. She hurried out of the pew and ran 168 00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:19.039 towards him. Oh, Hugh, Hugh, have you come back. He 169 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:22.559 looked round with a smile. He had not been killed. 170 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:25.720 It was all a mistake. He was going to speak. 171 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:31.919 Footsteps sounded hollow in the empty church. She turned and 172 00:11:31.960 --> 00:11:35.840 glanced down the dem mile. It was an old sexton 173 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:39.799 or verger who approached. I thought I heard you call, 174 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:44.600 He said, I was speaking to my husband. But Hugh 175 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:48.279 was nowhere to be seen. He was here a moment ago. 176 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:51.960 She looked about in anguish. He must have gone to 177 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.480 the door. There's nobody here, said the old man gently, 178 00:11:57.080 --> 00:12:00.679 only you and me. Ladies are often to and funny 179 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:03.919 since the war. There was one in here yesterday afternoon. 180 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:07.080 Said she was married in this church, and her husband 181 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:12.159 had promised to meet her here. Perhaps she were married here, no, 182 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:18.000 said missus Wilton, desolately, I was married in India. It 183 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:20.320 might have been two or three days after that when 184 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:24.320 she went into a small Italian restaurant in the Bayswater district. 185 00:12:25.080 --> 00:12:27.799 She often went out for her meals. Now she had 186 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:31.279 developed an exhausting cough, and she found that it somehow 187 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:34.600 became less troublesome when she was in a public place 188 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:38.639 looking at strange faces. In her flat there were all 189 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:42.080 the things that Hugh had used. The trunks and bags 190 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:44.600 still had his name on them, with the labels of 191 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:48.120 places where they had been together. They were like stabs. 192 00:12:49.080 --> 00:12:52.840 In the restaurant, people came and went, many soldiers too, 193 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:57.320 among them, just glancing at her in her corner. This day, 194 00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:00.200 as it chanced, she was rather late, and there was 195 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:03.960 nobody there. She was very tired. She nibbled at the 196 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:07.000 food they brought her. She could almost have cried from 197 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:11.279 tiredness and loneliness in the ache in her heart. And 198 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:15.159 suddenly he was before her, sitting there opposite at the table. 199 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:18.399 It was as it was in the days of their engagement, 200 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:22.799 when they used sometimes to lunch at restaurants. He was 201 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:26.159 not in uniform. He smiled at her and urged her 202 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:30.600 to eat just as he used in those days. I 203 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:33.679 met her that afternoon as she was crossing Kensington Gardens, 204 00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:37.279 and she told me about it. I have been with Hugh. 205 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:44.200 She seemed most happy. Did he say anything? No, yes, 206 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:46.840 I think he did, but I could not quite hear. 207 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:51.679 My head was so very tired the next time. I 208 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:54.639 did not see her for some time after that she 209 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:57.320 found I think that by going to places where she 210 00:13:57.399 --> 00:14:01.039 had once seen him, the old church, the little restaurant, 211 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:04.639 she was more certain to see him again. She never 212 00:14:04.679 --> 00:14:07.360 saw him at home, but in the street or the 213 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:11.559 park he would often walk along beside her. Once he 214 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:14.840 saved her from being run over. She said she actually 215 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:18.240 felt his hand grabbing her arm suddenly, when the car 216 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:22.360 was nearly upon her. She had given me the address 217 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:25.720 of the clairvoyant. And it is through that strange woman 218 00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:30.360 that I know, or seem to know what followed. Missus 219 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:33.639 Wilton was not exactly ill last winter, not so ill 220 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:36.279 at least as to keep to her bedroom. But she 221 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:40.039 was very thin, and her great handsome eyes always seemed 222 00:14:40.039 --> 00:14:44.240 to be staring at some point beyond searching. There was 223 00:14:44.279 --> 00:14:47.639 a look in them that seamen's eyes sometimes have when 224 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:49.720 they are drawing on a coast of which they are 225 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:54.519 not very certain. She lived almost in solitude. She hardly 226 00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:58.480 ever saw anybody, except when they sought her out. To 227 00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:01.200 those who were anxious about her, she laughed and said 228 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:05.840 she was very well. One sunny morning, she was lying awake, 229 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:09.240 waiting for the maid to bring her tea. The shy 230 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:13.120 London sunlight peeped through the blinds. The room had a 231 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:16.919 fresh and happy look. When she heard the door open, 232 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:20.000 she thought that the maid had come in. Then she 233 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:22.440 saw that Hugh was standing at the foot of the bed. 234 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:26.039 He was in uniform this time, and looked as he 235 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:29.840 had looked the day he went away. Oh, Hugh, speak 236 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:34.279 to me, Will you not say just one word? He 237 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:36.919 smiled and threw back his head, just as he used 238 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:39.320 to in the old days at her mother's house. When 239 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:41.679 he wanted to call her out of the room without 240 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:45.759 attracting the attention of the others, He moved towards the door, 241 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:49.559 still signing to her to follow him. He picked up 242 00:15:49.559 --> 00:15:52.519 her slippers on his way and held them out to her, 243 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:55.440 as if he wanted her to put them on. She 244 00:15:55.519 --> 00:16:01.679 slipped out of bed hastily. It is strange that when 245 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:04.360 they came to look through her things after her death, 246 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:10.519 the slippers could never be found. End of section twelve.