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
_portiere_ 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
_seance_ 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 _portiere_ 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
_portiere_," 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 _portiere_, 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.