THE YOUNG GHOST COUPLE

Lady C having asked me to pay her a short visit in Hampshire, it was arranged that her daughter, a mutual friend and myself should drive their Welsh ponies from C’s Manor to her House, a distance of about sixty-eight miles.

We arrived the first day at a village where we stayed the night, and starting off early the next morning, drove as far as A ------, where we rested the ponies, and then commenced the last stage of our journey in the hope of reaching our destination before nightfall.

I was holding the reins, and was going very quietly so as to save the little animals as much as possible, and I must have stupidly taken the wrong turning as we came to four cross roads facing a desolate common.

It was now getting dark, and we pulled up to discuss the situation. There was not a soul to be seen, nor was there any house in sight, and though there was a sign-post, which Miss K left the carriage to consult, it conveyed little to our minds, as the names on it were quite unfamiliar to us.

The ponies were very fidgety, rearing and plunging, and seeming frightened, so that I was greatly relieved at seeing a young couple walking along the road facing us, and called out to Miss K:

-      "Jump in, the ponies won’t stand. Let’s drive after those people and ask them the way.”

Miss K ------ was a little distance from the carriage, and I had time to notice that the girl wore a white gown and a black hat, but what chiefly caught my attention was the way in which she was holding up her skirt, and the swaggering manner in which she walked.

The man had his right arm through hers, and wore a short coat and a cap.  We drove after the couple, and I called out:

-      "Please can you tell me the way to ------?”

But as they paid no attention I drew nearer to them, repeating the question, when suddenly they vanished, there was no one to answer it — the road lay empty in front of us, the common on either side devoid of bush, tree or shelter of any kind where they could have hidden!

I remarked, "Well!” and then we all re-echoed the word, and sat looking at each other. I must confess that I am not at all brave where ghosts are concerned, so I drove on hastily, following the same road for about a mile, when we met two cyclists who put us in the right direction, and we reached the House safely soon afterwards, to find a hearty welcome and a good supper awaiting us.

After a pleasant visit we commenced our homeward drive. Another daughter of Lady C had joined us, and she was much interested when we pointed out the spot where the mysterious couple had disappeared.

We decided to stop at the next village for the night, and to put up at the George Hotel. So while Miss K went into the Post Office, the two girls and I went on to order supper. After waiting some time we were just starting in search of her when she came in and told us that she was in the Post Office in the act of stamping her letters, when these words attracted her attention:

-      "Don’t you tell her nothing at all about it.  She's fair frightened as it is.  She told me she saw some one in white holding up her frock.”

Miss K said it instantly flashed through her mind what we had seen on the Common, and she remarked to the postmistress:

-      “Excuse my asking, but who was frightened and who was seen holding up her dress?”

And the postmistress replied:

-      ”Oh, that person was just telling me, Miss, that a friend of hers was walking home late last night, and met a woman dressed in white who did not pass her or go back, but just disappeared.”

At Miss K’s request, the postmistress gave the address of the woman who had seen the figure, and after supper we all trooped off to interview her. Mrs. M and her husband were “at home,” partaking of a late tea, and she was charmed to tell us of her adventure, which I give in her own words:

« We were coming home after market, middling late, along the path that’s a short cut here. I was walking a bit ahead of my old man, when I sees coming along in the middle of the road a young woman holding up her dress, and walking as if she be somebody.

I thinks to myself, “I wonder who you may be,” and made room like for her to pass. She never turned right nor left, but seemed to come straight through me. I turned cold and my legs shook, but I calls out to my old man:

     -    “Peter, d’ye see that?”

     -    “See what?” Calls out he.

     -    “See that young woman,” says I.

     -    “I seed no young woman,” says he.

Neither would Peter allow that there was any young woman.

“Cause if there 'ad bin any one there for the missus to see,” he remarked, dryly, to us, “wouldn’t I have seed her too?”

“Well,” retorted his wife, “I’ve spoke the truth, and tain’t like I'm the only one in the village that’s seen her. There's plenty who can say the same as I have.” »

Beyond that she had nothing to tell us, so, thanking her, we went back to the inn, where we made inquiries of the landlady, who assured us she had not heard of any ghostly visitors in the neighbourhood, but that as she and her husband had only been a few days in the place she would ask in the bar if any one knew of any such tales.

She returned shortly with the information that a few years ago there had been a shocking murder near to, or on, the Common, the coachman’s or gardener’s son at ----- having killed the girl he was in love with. It appeared that the young woman was in a somewhat higher station in life than himself and her parents objected to the match.

The girl was in the habit of walking across the Common to A ------, where she took music lessons, and the young man sometimes accompanied her. One night, as she did not return, a search party went out to look for her, and found her body lying on the Common, where she had been foully murdered.

At this point in the story I interrupted to observe, M But we saw two ghosts — a man and a woman.”

-      “Well, you see,” replied the landlady,“ he did away with himself, too.  They found his body lying by the gate on the right-hand of the sign-post that points to A ------.”

She then added that she understood that the parents of both of the unfortunate couple still lived in the neighbourhood. We were all entire strangers to the place and knew nothing of the murder on the Common. One of the girls wisely remarked:

-      “I never believed in such things as ghosts before. I do now, as three of us have seen them.”

[The above narrative comes from an unimpeachable source and is thoroughly authenticated.—Ed.]

(Occult Review, November 1910, “Three of us and two ghosts,” p.283-285)