Madam Crowl's Ghost

by Sheridan le Fanu

Mrs. Joliffe is now past seventy, and can't have many more birthdays on the journey that will bring her to her final home. Her hair has grown as white as snow over her clever but kind face. But she still stands tall and straight and is very active. In recent years, she has started to take care of adult patients, leaving younger people to worry about noisy and energetic youngsters. Those who took their first steps and spoke their first words with Mrs. Joliffe have now grown tall. Some of them even have a few white hairs.

So the soft sunset years have arrived for Mrs. Joliffe, who once looked after pretty Laura Mildmay, the smiling girl that is just stepping into the room and throwing her arms around the old woman's neck and kissing her.

"Now, this is so lucky!" said Mrs. Jenner, "You've just come in time to hear a story."

"Really!"

"No, no! No story! I saw it with my own eyes. But the girl wouldn't like to hear about ghosts and spirits, just as she's going to bed," said Mrs. Joliffe.

"Ghosts? That's exactly what I'd most like to hear about."

"Well, dear," said Mrs. Jenner, "if you're not afraid, sit down here with us."

"She was just going to tell me all about her first job looking after a dying old woman," said Mrs. Jenner, "and of the ghost she saw there. Now, Mrs. Joliffe, make your tea first and then begin."

The old woman agreed and made a cup of tea, and then looked up with a serious face. Mrs. Jenner and the pretty girl looked at the old woman expectantly and waited. Her room was a good place for a ghost story, with the dark wooden furniture, heavy curtains and long shadows.

"I'm an old woman now but I was only thirteen the night I arrived at Applewale House. My aunt was the housekeeper there. I was a bit frightened and wanted to be back with my mother. I was crying when I got into the coach to take me there and old John Mulbery, who was driving it and was a kind-hearted man, bought me a handful of apples to cheer me up. He told me there was a cake and tea and lamb chops waiting for me, all hot, in my aunt's room at the great house. It was a moonlit night and I ate the apples, looking out across the countryside.

"It's not right for gentlemen to frighten a poor child like I was. But there were two of them in the coach beside me and they began to question me about where I was going after nightfall, just when the moon rose. Well, I told them it was to look after Mrs. Arabella Crowl of Applewale House.

"'Oh,' said one of them, 'You won't stay long there!'

"And I looked at him to ask 'Why not?'

"'Because,' he said, 'she's more than half a ghost.'

"As I looked up at him, I thought I saw him smiling quickly at his friend, but I couldn't be sure. I got a terrible fright when he said that! And I'd have liked to ask him a lot about the old lady, but I was too shy. Besides, he and his friend began talking together about their own business. I was quite afraid as I drove into the dark park around the house. The trees stood very thick and tall and looked almost as old as the house.

"While I was waiting for my first view of the great house, we pulled up in front of it. A great white-and-black house it was, but most of it looked like it was locked up because there were only three or four servants and the old lady there.

"I was so afraid when the journey was over and the house was in front of me. I was about to meet my aunt that I'd never seen till that evening and Madam Crowl, who I'd come to look after and was already afraid of.

"My aunt kissed me in the hall and took me to her room. She was tall and thin, with a pale face, black eyes and long thin hands. She was past fifty and did not speak much, but her word was law. I have no complaints to make about her but she was a hard woman, and I think she'd have been kinder to me if I'd been her sister's child instead of her brother's. But all that's of no importance now.

"Mr. Chevenix Crowl – he was Madam Crowl's grandson – came down about twice or three times a year to see that the old lady was well looked after. I only saw him twice all the time I was at Applewale House. Even though he didn't visit much, Madam Crowl was well taken care of, but that was because my aunt did her duty and so did the maid, Meg Wyvern. Mrs. Wyvern was a fat, happy woman of fifty, tall and large, who always walked slowly, but laughed long and loud. She had a good salary but was a bit stingy, and kept all her fine clothes under lock and key.

"She never gave me anything all the time I was there, but she was pleasant and always laughing, and she talked non-stop over her tea and, seeing me so miserable, she made me feel better with her laughing and stories. I think I liked her better than my aunt – children like a bit of fun or a story. Although my aunt was very good to me, she was a hard woman about some things and always silent.

"My aunt took me into her bedroom, so that I might rest a bit while she was getting the meal ready. But first, she touched me on the shoulder and said I was tall for my age and asked me if I could sew. She looked in my face and said I was like my father, her brother, who was dead. She hoped I was a better person than he was.

"It was a hard thing to say the first time I met her, I thought.

"When I went into the next room, the maid's, it was very comfortable and there was a great fire and tea on the table and hot cake and meat. And there was Mrs. Wyvern, fat, happy and talking more in an hour than my aunt did in a year.

"While I was still eating, my aunt went upstairs to see Madam Crowl.

"'She's a troublesome old lady. You'll have to keep your eyes open or she'll be in the fire or out of the window. She moves like lightning, though she's old.'

"'How old, ma'am?' I asked.

"'Ninety-three last birthday and that's eight months ago,' she said and laughed. 'And don't ask your aunt any questions about her!'

"'And what's my job, please, ma'am?'

"'Well,' says she, 'your aunt, Mrs. Shutters, will tell you that, but I suppose you'll sit in the room with your sewing and see that she's happy and get her food or drink when she wants it, and keep her out of trouble, and ring the bell if she's difficult.'

"'Is she deaf, ma'am?'

"'No, nor blind,' she said, 'but her mind has gone and she can't remember anything.'

"'And, ma'am, is the old lady in good health?'

"'There's no harm in asking that,' she said. 'She's been a bit unwell lately, but better this past week, and I expect she'll live to a hundred years old.

Here's your aunt coming down the hall.'

"My aunt came in and began talking to Mrs. Wyvern, and I was walking around the room, looking at this thing and that, as I started to feel more comfortable and at home there.

"I saw a strange old leather jacket, with long belts and buckles all around it, and sleeves as long as the curtains.

"'What's that you're doing, child?' said my aunt, angrily, turning to look at me when I thought she was not paying me any attention. 'What's that in your hand?'

"'This, ma'am?' I said, turning around with the leather jacket in my hand. 'I don't know what it is, ma'am.'

"Although she was always pale, the red came to her face, and her eyes shone with anger. She shook me by the shoulder, and she pulled the thing out of my hand, and said, 'While you stay here, don't touch anything that doesn't belong to you', and she put it back again and shut the door with a bang and locked it.

"Mrs. Wyvern was lifting up her hands and laughing all the time in her chair.'

"The tears were in my eyes, and Mrs. Wyvern, drying her own eyes that were wet with laughing, said 'The child meant no harm – come here to me, child. Ask us no questions and we'll tell you no lies. Come here and sit down for a while before you go to bed.'

"My room was upstairs, next to the old lady's, and Mrs. Wyvern's bed was near hers in her room, and I was to be ready if she called me.

"The old lady was behaving badly that night. Sometimes she wouldn't let them dress her and, at other times, she wouldn't let them take her clothes off. She was a great beauty when she was young, they said. But there was no-one at Applewale who remembered her then. And she loved her dresses, and had enough to open several shops at least. All her dresses were old-fashioned and strange, but worth a lot of money.

"Well, I went to bed. I lay awake for a while because everything was new to me. And I heard Mrs. Wyvern talking and I listened with my hand to my ear, but I couldn't hear Madam Crowl, and I don't think she said a word.

"Everyone looked after her very well. The people at Applewale knew that, when she died, everyone would get the sack and their jobs were well-paid and easy. The doctor came twice a week to see the old lady, and you can be sure they all did as he told them. One thing was the same every time: they were never to make her angry, but to please her in everything. So she lay in her clothes all that night and next day and I was sewing that day in my own room, except when I went downstairs to dinner.

"I would have liked to see the old lady and even to hear her speak. But she seemed as far away as if she were in London.

"When I had my dinner, my aunt sent me out for a walk for an hour. I was glad to get back because the trees were so big and the place so dark and lonely and it was a cloudy day. I cried for a while, thinking of home, while I was walking alone there. That evening, I was sitting in my room and the door was open into Madam Crowl's, where my aunt was. It was, then, for the first time I heard what I suppose was the old lady talking.

"It was a strange noise like a bird or an animal, only it was very small.

"I tried to hear everything I could. But I couldn't make out one word she said. And my aunt answered:

"'The Devil can't hurt you here, ma'am.'

"I kept listening with my ear next to the door, holding my breath, but not another word or sound came from the room. In about twenty minutes, as I was sitting by the table, looking at some pictures in my book, I heard something moving at the door and, looking up, I saw my aunt's face at the door.

"'Shhh!' she said, very softly: 'Thank God, she's asleep at last, and don't make any noise till I come back. I'm going downstairs to have a cup of tea and I'll be back soon – me and Mrs. Wyvern, and she'll be sleeping in the room, and you can run down when we come up and have your supper.'

"I kept looking at the picture book, listening every now and then, but there was no sound that I could hear; and I began talking to myself because I was getting scared in that big room.

"And at last up I got, and began walking about the room, looking at this and that. And I looked into Madam Crowl's bedroom.

"It was a very large room, with flowered curtains as high as the ceiling. There was a mirror, the biggest I'd ever seen, and the room was full of light. I counted twenty-two candles. That was what she wanted and nobody said no to her.

"I listened at the door and looked all round. When I was sure I could not hear or see anything moving, I walked into the room and looked round again. Then I saw myself in the big mirror and, at last, I thought 'Why shouldn't I have a look at the old lady in bed?

"Well, I went inside and my heart almost stopped. So I waited a bit, but everything was quiet. So, I walked closer until I saw before me the famous Madam Crowl of Applewale House. There she was, fully dressed. You never saw anything like it. Red and green and gold! And such wrinkles! But her nose was thin and her eyes were half open. She used to stand, dressed like that in front of the mirror. Her wrinkled little hands were by her sides, and her long nails were cut into points.

"Well, I think you'd have been frightened yourself if you'd seen her. I couldn't move, nor take my eyes off her; my heart stood still. And in a moment she opened her eyes and sat up, turned round and put her feet on the floor, facing me, looking into my face with her two great glassy eyes and long false teeth.

"Well, a corpse is a natural thing, but this was the most dreadful sight I'd ever seen. She had her fingers straight out pointing at me. She screamed:

"'Why did you say I killed the boy?'

"If I'd thought for a moment, I'd have turned and run. But I couldn't take my eyes off her, and I backed away from her as soon as I could. She came after me like a puppet on wires, with her fingers pointing at my throat.

"I kept backing away as fast as I could, and her fingers were only a little away from my throat and I felt I'd go mad if she touched me.

"I shouted like my soul was leaving my body and, that minute, my aunt called out from the door, and the old lady turned round, and I ran through my room and down the stairs, as fast as I could.

"Mrs. Wyvern laughed a lot when I told her what had happened. But she changed when she heard the old lady's words.

"'Say them again,' she said.

"So I told her.

"'Why did you say I killed the boy?'

"It was about a week after (as well as I can remember), Mrs. Wyvern told me something about Madam Crowl that I didn't know before.

"Seventy years ago, when she was a young beauty, she married Mr. Crowl of Applewale. But he was a widower and had a son about nine years old. But one morning the child disappeared and there was never any news of him. No-one could say where he went, but his hat was found by the lake, under a bush that still grows there today, and it was thought he was drowned while he was swimming. And Mr. Crowl's son, by his second marriage, with this Madam Crowl that has lived so very long, inherited all his money. It was his son, the old lady's grandson, Mr. Chevenix Crowl, who owned the house at the time I came to Applewale.

"There was a lot of talk long before my aunt's time about it and it was said the stepmother knew more than she said about it. But as the boy was never seen again, he was slowly forgotten.

"I'm going to tell you now about what I saw with my own eyes.

"I was not there six months, and it was winter time, when the old lady got sick for the last time. A day or two before she died, she began talking to herself and sometimes turning and turning in bed. You'd think a robber had a knife to her throat! She used to try to get out of the bed, and as she wasn't strong enough to walk or stand, she'd fall on the floor, with her thin, old hands in front of her face.

"I didn't go into the room and I shook with fear in my bed, listening to her screaming out words that would make you blue.

"My aunt and Mrs. Wyvern were always near her. At long last, she died and old Madam Crowl was put in her coffin, and Mr. Chevenix was called. But he was away in France and the delay was so long that the doctor said she should be buried. No-one cared except my aunt and the rest of us from Applewale. We lived at the great house till he came to tell us what he wanted to do with the house and pay our salaries.

"I was put into another room, two doors away from Madam Crowl's room, after her death, and this thing happened the night before Mr. Chevenix came to Applewale.

"The room I was in now was a large square one, with no furniture except for my bed and a chair and a table. And the big mirror that the old lady used to look into at herself.

"The news came that day that Mr. Chevenix was arriving next morning at Applewale and I was not sorry, because I thought I was sure to go home again to my mother. And I was so happy thinking of everyone at home and my sister Janet, and the kitten and all the rest, that I couldn't sleep. It was twelve o'clock and I was wide awake. My back was turned to the door and my eyes towards the wall.

"Well, it was about quarter past twelve when I saw a light on the wall before me, as if something was on fire behind, and the shadows of the bed, the chair and my dress, which was hanging from the wall, were dancing up and down on the ceiling. And I turned my head quickly, thinking something must be on fire.

"And what did I see? The likeness of the old woman dressed in her finest clothes, on her dead body, with her eyes wide open and her face like the Devil himself.

'It was a red light that rose around her, as if her dress around her feet was burning. She was walking towards me, with her old hands ready to touch me. I could not move, but she passed straight by me, like cold air, and I saw her, at the wall with a door open wide, and her hands touching something that was there. I never saw that door before. And she turned round to me and suddenly the room was dark, and I was standing on the other side of the bed. I don't know how I got there but I screamed and ran down the hall until I reached Mrs. Wyvern's door.

"You can guess I didn't sleep that night and with the first light of morning, I went to my aunt.

"Well my aunt didn't get angry at me, as I thought she would, but she held me by the hand, and looked hard in my face all the time. And she told me not to be afraid:

"'Did it have a key in its hand?'

"'Yes,' I said, 'a big key.'

"'Wait a bit!' she said, opening the cupboard door, 'Was it like this?' she asked, taking one out and showing it to me, with a dark look on her face.

"'That was it.'

"'Are you sure?' she asked, turning it round.

"'Certain,' I said and I felt like I was going to faint when I saw it.

"'Well, that will do, child,' she said, thinking, and she locked it up again.

"'Mr. Chevenix will be here today before twelve o'clock and you must tell him all about it,' she said, 'and I suppose I'll be leaving soon, and so the best thing is that you should go home this afternoon, and I'll look out for another job for you when I can.'

"My aunt packed up my things for me to take home and Mr. Crowl himself came to Applewale that day, a handsome man, about thirty years old. It was the second time I'd seen him. But this was the first time he spoke to me.

"My aunt talked with him in the housekeeper's room and I don't know what they said. I was a bit afraid of him, as he was a great gentleman. But he smiled at me and said:

"'What's all this you've seen, child? It must be a dream, for you know there aren't any ghosts. But whatever it was, sit down and tell all about it from first to last.'

"Well, when I finished, he thought a bit and said to my aunt:

"'Long, long ago, there was a door there, to the left, where the girl dreamt she saw my grandmother open it. The old man who told me about it was past eighty then and I was only a boy. It's twenty years ago. The jewels used to be there, long ago, before the safe was made, and he told me about the key. And this key, you say, was found in the bottom of the wardrobe where she kept her dresses.

Now, wouldn't it be a strange thing if we found some spoons or diamonds forgotten there? You must come up with us, child, and point to exactly the place you saw it.'

"I hated going there and held my aunt's hand as I stepped into that terrible room, and showed them both how she came and passed me, and the place where she stood, and where the door seemed to open. There was an empty old cupboard against the wall and, pushing it aside, sure enough there was a door in the wall behind it, and a keyhole blocked up with wood.

"'Ha!' he said, with a strange smile, 'This looks like it.'

"It took some minutes with a small hammer to get the bit of wood out of the keyhole. The key fitted, sure enough, and, with a long, loud noise, the lock turned and he pulled the door open.

"There was another door inside, stranger than the first, but the locks were gone, and it opened easily. Inside was a narrow floor and walls. We couldn't see what was in it because it was dark.

"When my aunt lit the candle, the man held it up and stepped in.

"My aunt stood on tiptoe trying to look over his shoulder but I could see nothing at all.

"'Ha! ha!' said Mr. Chevenix, stepping backwards. 'What's that?'

"He walked in and kicked the object. The head and body collapsed into bones and dust, little more than a hatful.

"'It was the bones of a child and the rest turned to dust when he touched it. They said nothing for a while, but he turned round the skull, as it lay on the floor.

"Young as I was, I knew well enough what they were thinking.

"'A dead cat!' he said, moving back, putting out the candle and shutting the door, 'We'll come back, you and I, Mrs. Shutters, and look around later on. I've got other things to speak to you about first and this little girl's going home, you say. She has her salary and I must give her a present,' he said, touching my shoulder with his hand.

"He gave me a pound and I went off about an hour later and never saw Madam Crowl of Applewale again, thank God. But when I was grown up, my aunt spent a day and night with me and she told me there was no doubt it was the poor little boy that went missing so long ago, who was shut up to die there in the dark by that evil old woman, where his screams could not be heard. His hat was left by the water's edge to make everyone believe he was drowned. The clothes, at the first touch, turned to dirt where the bones were found. But there were a couple of pennies the poor little boy had in his pocket, I suppose, when he was pushed in there, and never saw the light of day again.

So that's all I have to say about old Madam Crowl of Applewale House."