Cruel as the grave

by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

“But his wife turned her face to the wall, saying, however.

“‘Well, at any rate, I am glad that the girl in the red cloak is not flesh and blood, Phil. I would rather she should be an “optical illusion” or a fit of “catalepsy,” or even a “spectre,” than a sweetheart of yours, as I first took, her to be.’

“‘Be not afraid. You have no living rival, Alicia,’ answered her husband.

“And the reconciliation between the husband and the wife was complete from that time forth.

“But somehow the condition of the lady was worse than before.

“She was haunted.

“She knew herself to be haunted; but whether by a spectral illusion or a real spectre, she could not know. In the glow of the fire light, in the shadow of the bed-curtains in the illuminated drawing-room, on the dark staircase, wherever and whenever she found herself alone, the vision of the girl in the red cloak crossed her path. She did not speak to it, or try to stop it again. She did not wish to risk another such an electric shock as should ‘cast her shuddering on her face.’ But her health wasted under the trial. Her nerves failed. She grew fearful of being left alone for an instant; nothing would induce her to go into any room in the house without an attendant. She contracted a habit of looking fearfully over her shoulder, and sometimes suddenly screaming.

“Nor was the mistress of the house the only sufferer from this ‘abnormal state of the nervous system,’ as the master of the house preferred to call the mystery. The servants grew so much afraid to move about the building alone, that their usefulness was much impaired. And at length one after another ran away, and took to the woods and mountain caves, preferring to starve or beg rather than live in luxury in the haunted house. New servants were procured to supply the places of the old ones, until the latter could be brought back; but none of them stayed long; nothing could induce them to remain in the ‘haunted house.’ The story of the gipsy girl’s ghost got around in the neighborhood. Not all the despotic power of Mr. Dubarry could prevent this. The house came to be pointed out and avoided by the ignorant and superstitious, as a haunted and accursed spot. Even the more intelligent and enlightened portion of the community gradually forsook it; for it was not very agreeable to visit a family where the mistress was so full of ‘flaws and starts’ that, even at the head of her own table, she would often startle the whole company by suddenly looking over her right shoulder and uttering a piercing scream.

“And so the house was abandoned by high and low, rich and poor alike. And the worthy gossips of the neighborhood wisely nodded over their tea-cups, and declared that the deserted condition of the house was but a just retribution for the sins of its master.

“And in the meantime the health of the mistress grew worse and worse. The most serious fears were entertained for her life and reason, death or insanity seeming to be the most probable issue of her malady. Medical advice was called in. The doctor, either in complaisance or sincerity, agreed with Mr. Dubarry’s theory of the patient’s condition, ascribing her illness to an ‘abnormal state of the nervous system,’ and he advised change of air and scene, and he held forth good hopes that within a very few months, when the young wife should become a mother, her health might be perfectly reëstablished.