THE STORY OF THE GREEN LADY.
The story I have to tell now happened a very short time ago, and every detail is as fresh in my mind as if I had heard and seen it yesterday. Mrs. Guppy-Volckman has been long known to the spiritualistic world as a very powerful medium, also as taking a great private interest in Spiritualism, which all media do not. Her means justify her, too, in gratifying her whims; and hearing that a certain house in Broadstairs was haunted, she became eager to ascertain the truth. The house being empty, she procured the keys from the landlord, and proceeded on a voyage of discovery alone. She had barely recovered, at the time, from a most dangerous illness, which had left a partial paralysis of the lower limbs behind it; it was therefore with considerable difficulty that she gained the drawing-room of the house, which was on the first floor, and when there she abandoned her crutches, and sat down on the floor to recover herself. Mrs. Volckman was now perfectly alone. She had closed the front door after her, and she was moreover almost helpless, as it was with great difficulty that she could rise without assistance. It was on a summer's evening towards the dusky hour, and she sat on the bare floor of the empty house waiting to see what might happen. After some time (I tell this part of the story as I received it from her lips) she heard a rustling or sweeping sound, as of a long silk train coming down the uncarpeted stairs from the upper storey. The room in which she sat communicated with another, which led out upon the passage, and it was not long before the door between these two apartments opened and the figure of a woman appeared. She entered the room in which Mrs. Volckman sat, very cautiously, and commenced to walk round it, feeling her way along the walls as though she were blind or tipsy. She was dressed in a green satin robe that swept behind her—round the upper part of her body was a kind of scarf of glistening white material, like silk gauze—and on her head was a black velvet cap, or coif, from underneath which her long black hair fell down her back. Mrs. Volckman, although used all her life to manifestations and apparitions of all sorts, told me she had never felt so frightened at the sight of one before. She attempted to rise, but feeling her incapability of doing so quickly, she screamed with fear. As soon as she did so, the woman turned round and ran out of the room, apparently as frightened as herself. Mrs. Volckman got hold of her crutches, scrambled to her feet, found her way downstairs, and reached the outside of the house in safety. Most people would never have entered it again. She, on the contrary, had an interview with the landlord, and actually, then and there, purchased a lease of the house and entered upon possession, and as soon as it was furnished and ready for occupation, she invited a party of friends to go down and stay with her at Broadstairs, and make the acquaintance of the "Green Lady," as we had christened her. Colonel Lean and I were amongst the visitors, the others consisting of Lady Archibald Campbell, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Olive, Mrs. Bellew, Colonel Greck, Mr. Charles Williams, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Volckman, which, with our host and hostess, made up a circle of twelve. We assembled there on a bright day in July, and the house, with its large rooms and windows facing the sea, looked cheerful enough. The room in which Mrs. Volckman had seen the apparition was furnished as a drawing-room, and the room adjoining it, which was divided by a portière only from the larger apartment, she had converted for convenience sake into her bedroom. The first evening we sat it was about seven o'clock, and so light that we let down all the venetians, which, however, did little to remedy the evil. We had no cabinet, nor curtains, nor darkness, for it was full moon at the time, and the dancing, sparkling waves were quite visible through the interstices of the venetians. We simply sat round the table, holding hands in an unbroken circle and laughing and chatting with each other. In a few minutes Mrs. Volckman said something was rising beside her from the carpet, and in a few more the "Green Lady" was visible to us all standing between the medium and Mr. Williams. She was just as she had been described to us, both in dress and appearance, but her face was as white and as cold as that of a corpse, and her eyes were closed. She leaned over the table and brought her face close to each of us in turn, but she seemed to have no power of speech. After staying with us about ten minutes, she sunk as she had risen, through the carpet, and disappeared. The next evening, under precisely similar circumstances, she came again. This time she had evidently gained more vitality in a materialized condition, for when I urged her to tell me her name, she whispered, though with much difficulty, "Julia!" and when Lady Archibald observed that she thought she had no hands, the spirit suddenly thrust out a little hand, and grasped the curls on her forehead with a violence that gave her pain. Unfortunately, Mr. Williams' professional engagements compelled him to leave us on the following day, and Mrs. Volckman had been too recently ill to permit her to sit alone, so that we were not able to hold another séance for the "Green Lady" during our visit. But we had not seen the last of her. One evening Mrs. Bellew and I were sitting in the bay window of the drawing-room, just "between the lights," and discussing a very private matter indeed, when I saw (as I thought) my hostess maid raise the portière that hung between the apartments and stand there in a listening attitude. I immediately gave Mrs. Volckman the hint. "Let us talk of something else," I said, in a low voice. "Jane is in your bedroom." "O! no! she's not," was the reply. "But I saw her lift the portière," I persisted; "she has only just dropped it." "You are mistaken," replied my hostess, "for Jane has gone on the beach with the child." I felt sure I had not been mistaken, but I held my tongue and said no more. The conversation was resumed, and as we were deep in the delicate matter, the woman appeared for the second time.
"Mrs. Volckman," I whispered, "Jane is really there. She has just looked in again."
My friend rose from her seat. "Come with me," she said, "and I will convince you that you are wrong."
I followed her into the bedroom, where she showed me that the door communicating with the passage was locked inside.
"Now, do you see," she continued, "that no one but the 'Green Lady' could enter this room but through the one we are sitting in."
"Then it must have been the 'Green Lady,'" I replied, "for I assuredly saw a woman standing in the doorway."
"That is likely enough," said Mrs. Volckman; "but if she comes again she shall have the trouble of drawing back the curtains."
And thereupon she unhooped the portière, which consisted of two curtains, and drew them right across the door. We had hardly regained our seats in the bay window before the two curtains were sharply drawn aside, making the brass rings rattle on the rod, and the "Green Lady" stood in the opening we had just passed through. Mrs. Volckman told her not to be afraid, but to come out and speak to us; but she was apparently not equal to doing so, and only stood there for a few minutes gazing at us. I imprudently left my seat and approached her, with a view to making overtures of friendship, when she dropped the curtains over her figure. I passed through them immediately to the other side, and found the bedroom empty and the door locked inside, as before.