I think we were also told, by-the-by, that I had slept in the room on the anniversary of the occurrence.
It was obviously impossible to get any corroboration of such a story.
Two small points in it, however, were proved to be true.
The Moscow hotels, as a rule, were comparatively modern at the time of our visit, and therefore the "fifty years ago" seemed highly improbable.
We learned, however, through a few discreet questions later, that this particular hotel _had_ been in existence so far back as fifty years, and also that rifle compet.i.tions had taken place on certain occasions in those far-off days.
For the rest I claim nothing. I have truthfully recounted my experience without a word of exaggeration, and have never been able to account for it normally.
The explanation given to us is, of course, just worth the paper it was written upon from any _evidential_ point of view.
CHAPTER VI--_continued_
SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892
Taking my experiences chronologically, I must now carry my readers back to England, where the autumn of this year found me in London.
I had been asked to recommend a house for paying guests, well situated, in the West End of London, and newly started by a lady who had been left a widow with very slender provision. Several kind women had interested themselves in the case, and had wisely suggested thinking out a means of livelihood in the future rather than merely supplying present wants.
It would be difficult to imagine a person _less_ suited for the sort of employment chosen; but that is "another story."
I never care to recommend anything or anybody of which or of whom I have no personal knowledge; at the same time, I was anxious to help my kindly acquaintance in her philanthropy, and as I had arranged to spend some weeks in London that autumn--to be near an invalid brother--it struck me that I might stay at the house so strongly recommended, instead of taking private rooms as usual.
So I journeyed to Suss.e.x Gardens, found a charming house, newly furnished and decorated, and as clean as the proverbial "new pin," and, moreover, a very good-looking mistress of the house, still a youngish woman of five or six and thirty.
She spoke most warmly of the kindness she had received from the lady who had given me her address, showed me some pleasant rooms, and the arrangement was quickly completed.
I chose a small sitting-room in addition to my bedroom, although, as a matter of fact, this was scarcely necessary, as I was the first guest received. Only one deaf old lady appeared upon the scene during the six weeks I spent there.
I had not been forty-eight hours in the house before I discovered that my hostess was a convinced and very remarkable psychic. Naturally she was delighted to find someone to whom she could speak of her various experiences without being laughed at or put down as a lunatic. At the same time I am bound to confess that Mrs Peters, although extremely interesting, was also rather agitating, and certainly much too erratic to make an entirely satisfactory _Chatelaine_. She was given to reading "Aurora Leigh," instead of ordering dinner, and had to be sent for occasionally to sit at the head of the table, with a volume of _Browning_ or _Tennyson_ firmly clutched in her reluctant hand. Even when duly "found and delivered," curious things happened during the meals--especially at dinner in the evening, when she often put down knife and fork and directed my attention to the far end of the handsome dining-room, where she was wont to see the ghost of her late husband.
"Look, dear Miss Bates! Surely you _must_ see him--dear Henry, I mean.
There he stands, beard and all, just between the sofa and the wall. I can see him as clearly as I see you!"
I am bound to say I never _did_ see "dear Henry"; but the fine tabby cat certainly saw something in that corner, for it would rush most frantically to the sofa, jump on to one end, and sit staring at Henry (presumably), with its tail stuck out and its fur rising up, glaring into the corner with a look of combined fear and fascination.
My little sitting-room was invaded at all hours by my too interesting landlady, who would suddenly remember some thrilling experience, which she wished to share with me. At length I took to my bed for three days, not in the least ill, but simply for a much-needed rest in the midst of all these excitements.
A day or two after emerging from this haven of peace, I received a visit from a young lady, whose parents were well known to me in Yorkshire, and who had recently become engaged to a very rich man, many years her senior; in fact, considerably older than her own father, who had lately pa.s.sed away. The daughters of this family were all devoted to their father, and most of the visit was occupied in giving me details of his last illness, and in my sympathising with her upon his loss. It was, in fact, far more a visit of condolence than of congratulation upon her future prospects of happiness. As to the latter, I found it difficult to be quite truthful and yet conventionally ecstatic.
To marry a man nearly old enough to be your grandfather struck me as risky, to say the least of it, even with all the emollients which riches and position undoubtedly add to domestic life.
The young woman in question did not at all resent my frankness on the subject, but a.s.sured me that her greatest consolation in thinking of her late father was the fact that she was about to make a marriage which he had always wished, and of which he had emphatically given his approval on his death-bed. "I told him I had decided upon it, just before he died, and he was so relieved and happy about it," she said simply as she turned to leave the room. Having mentioned that a younger sister was also in town, I sent a message to the latter, asking her to take early dinner with me on the following Sunday, which happened to be my only spare day just then.
On the evening of this visit from the coming bride, I had accepted an invitation to a large musical party in the house of the lady who had begged me to interest myself in Mrs Peters. It was within a stone"s-throw of Suss.e.x Gardens, and I came down to dinner at seven-thirty P.M., intending to dress later, and go round there about nine P.M.
For an hour or so before dinner I had been conscious of a growing despondency, to which I could attribute no cause, and this increased so much during the meal that Mrs Peters noticed it at last, and asked me if I were feeling unwell.
"No--not unwell--but I am absolutely miserable, and cannot imagine why."
"Then you have not had bad news?" was the next remark. "I feared you must have had, seeing you so silent and not able to eat anything."
In answer to this I said that I had not even the excuse of hearing of other people"s misfortunes, for a young lady had been calling upon me that afternoon, who was about to make what the world calls a very successful marriage. I did not, however, mention her name, as Mrs Peters knew none of my friends.
Dinner over, I felt still so unaccountably wretched that I determined to give up the evening party, and write my excuses. Mrs Peters did her best to combat this decision, fearing that her kind benefactress might be disappointed, and also urging that the evening"s enjoyment would cheer me up. But finding me inexorable, she then said: "Well, if you have quite determined not to go, shall I come into your sitting-room and see if we can get any explanation of your curious feeling of depression?"
I closed with this suggestion, knowing Mrs Peters to be a really remarkable sensitive.
So we sat in the dark for a few minutes; and then I heard a soft _frou-frou_ on Mrs Peters" silk gown, and knew she was tracing out words with her hand in a fashion of her own.
"It is a spirit that young lady brought with her," she announced at length. "The spirit has remained here with _you_, and is worried about this marriage you spoke of. She wants you to try and break it off. She seems to have been nearly related to the lady, or perhaps a G.o.dmother; anyway, she takes great interest in her."
"Will she give a name?" I asked.
"ELIZA is all I get," Mrs Peters replied.
It then occurred to me that my young friend"s name _was_ Eliza, and that she had been so named after a great-aunt, to the best of my recollection; but as she was invariably called Elsa, by friends and relations alike, it was only by chance that I remembered hearing her teased about her far less romantic baptismal name.
I asked if no surname could be given, thinking at the moment that it would be Waverly--the family name; but my thought was evidently not transferred to Mrs Peters, who said she could not get the name accurately, but that it was certainly _not_ Waverly. I found later that the Great-Aunt Eliza had a name entirely different from that of her descendants.
Nothing further happened on this occasion, except that I sent a message to "Great-Aunt Eliza" to say that nothing would induce me to take the responsibility of trying to break off any marriage, either by the advice of people in this sphere or in any other sphere. In this case I should have had neither the authority nor the influence to make any such unwise attempt.
Sunday came round in due course, and brought the bride"s younger sister, then a girl of twenty-four or twenty-five. We discussed the usual midday Sunday dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, Mrs Peters sitting at the head of the table, I on her right hand, and Carrie Waverly next to me.
Suddenly realising that my remarks to the latter were receiving very scant attention, I looked up, and found the girl"s black eyes fixed in a basilisk stare upon our unfortunate hostess, whose own eyes were cast down, but who appeared uneasy and troubled by the determined gaze of my guest. At length the poor woman threw down her knife and fork, rose hastily from the dining-table, and made her way eagerly to the sofa at the other end of the room, where she lay down at full length, murmuring: "_I can"t stand it any longer!_"
Carrie Waverly was at length induced to come away to my sitting-room and leave the poor woman in peace, which she did, a.s.serting her complete innocence, and a.s.suring me she "_only wanted to see if she could make Mrs Peters look up at her!_"
I explained to her that "sensitives" may be as much upset by this sort of thing as another person would be by a blow on the back. She looked incredulous, and then said cheerfully: "Well, if it is as bad as that, don"t you think you ought to go and see how she is?"
"Two for yourself and your own curiosity and one for her!" I thought; but I took the hint, and found Mrs Peters still prostrate on the sofa, but full of apologies for her sudden collapse:
"You must have thought me so very rude," etc., etc.
I rea.s.sured her on this point, and expressed regret that my visitor should have upset her so much by looking so fixedly at her.
"It was not her fault," said Mrs Peters eagerly. "_It was the man standing over her._ He had his hands upon her shoulders, and was trying so hard to influence her, and she was resisting it all the time, and the whole conflict of their wills was thrown upon _me_, and I could not stand it at last--that was why I left the table," she gasped out.
"Could you describe the man at all?"
"Quite clearly," she said. "I shall never forget his face--I saw him so distinctly." She then proceeded to describe in detail the very clear-cut features and bushy eyebrows of Carrie Waverly"s father, giving also his colouring, which was very distinctive. I suggested trying to find out what he wanted to say to his daughter, but this distressed Mrs Peters so much that I was sorry to have made the suggestion.
"No! no! dear Miss Bates!--don"t ask me to do that--dear Henry never likes my taking messages from strangers--I have promised him that I would never do it without his permission. It upsets me so much, and I feel so weak already."
So I came away, promising to look in later and see if I could do anything for her.