WHEN I was a small child, my mother took a house near ———. As she
could never sleep in a strange house for some days, she sat up in bed
reading a novel. Suddenly she looked up from the book and saw, coming
from the direction of the door, a female figure clad in a blue
dressing gown, with loosened golden hair about her shoulders. The
figure walked to the mantelpiece, took up a comb that was lying there,
drew it through her hair, turned from the mantelpiece, walked towards
the door and vanished. A few months after this my father died. Now,
this house had been taken on a three years’ agreement, and my mother,
after her bereavement, wished to leave, but the owner was not inclined
to release her. Mother spoke to her about the apparition, and told her
she could not stay. After breaking down, the unhappy woman said she
knew this did occur at different times in the room mentioned, and she
explained that the figure was that of her niece who was murdered by
her own sister through jealousy, as she was combing her hair. The
spirit had been “read down,” but did not rest. The murderess died in
an asylum. My mother was released from her agreement on a promise not
to tell a possible tenant.
Since then I have passed the house many times, and at intervals have
seen the “To Let” board in the garden.