Reality or Delusion - Mrs Henry Wood

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Reality or delusion by missus Henry Wood. This is a
ghost story. Every word of it is true, and I
don't mind confessing that. For ages afterwards, some of us
did not care to pass the spot alone at night.
Some people do not care to pass it. Yet. It
was autumn and we were at Crabcott. Lena had been ailing,

(00:23):
and in October Missus todd Hetley proposed to the Squire
that they should remove with her there to see if
the change would do her good. We Worcestershire. People call
North Crab a village, but one might count the houses
in it little and great, and not find four and twenty.
South Crab, half a mile off, is even so much larger.

(00:45):
But the church and school are at North Crab. John
Ferrer had been employed by Squire Todd Hetley as a
sort of overlooker on the estate or working bailiff. He
had died the previous winter, leaving nothing behind him except
some debts. For he was not provident, and his handsome son,

(01:06):
Daniel Daniel Ferrer, who was rather superior as far as
education went, disliked work. He would make a show of
helping his father, but it came to little Old Ferrer
had not put him to any particular trade or occupation,
and Daniel, who was as proud as Lucifer, would not
turn to it himself. He liked to be a gentleman.

(01:29):
All he did now was to work in his garden
and feed his fowls, ducks, rabbits and pigeons, of which
he kept a great quantity, selling them to the houses
around and sending them to market. But as every one said,
poultry would not maintain him. Missus Lees in the pretty
cottage hard By Ferrers grew tired of saying it this.

(01:52):
Missus Lees and her daughter Maria must not be confounded
with Lees the pointsman. They were in a better condition
of life and not related to him. Daniel Ferrer used
to run in and out of their house at will
when a boy, and he was now engaged to be
married to Maria. She would have a little money, and
the Lizas were respected. In nought Crabb people began to

(02:15):
whisper a query as to how Ferrer got his corn
for the poultry. He was not known to buy much,
and he would have to go out of his house
at Christmas for its owner, mister Coney, had given him notice.
Missus Lees, anxious about Maria's prospects asked Daniel what he
intended to do then, and he answered, make his fortune.

(02:37):
He should begin to do it as soon as he
could turn himself round. But the time was going on
and the turning round seemed to be as far off
as ever. After Midsummer, a niece of the schoolmistress's Missus Timmans,
had come to the school to stay. Her name was
Harriet Rowe. Her father, Humphrey Rowe, was half brother to
Miss Timmans. He had married a frenchwoman and lived more

(03:02):
in France than in England until his death. The girl
had been christened Henriette, but not Crab, notwithstanding much French
converted it to Harriet. She was a showy, free mannered,
good looking girl, and made a speedy acquaintance with Daniel
Ferrer or he with her. They improved upon it so

(03:22):
rapidly that Maria Lees grew jealous, and not Crab began
to say he cared for Harriet more than for Maria.
When Todd and I got home the latter end of
October to spend the Squire's birthday, things were in this state.
James Hill, the bailiff who had been taken on by
the squire in John Ferrar's place. But a far inferior

(03:44):
man to Ferr, not much better in fact than a
common workman, and of whose doings you will hear soon.
In regard to his little step son, David Garth gave
us an account of matters in general. Daniel Ferrer had
been drinking lately, Hill added, and his head was not
strong enough to stand it. And he was also beginning

(04:04):
to look as if he had some care upon him.
A nice lot he for them two women to be
fighting for, cried Hill, who was no friend to Ferrer.
There'll be mischief between them if they don't draw in
a bit. Maria Lisa's next door to mad over it,
I know. And however, finding herself the best light crows

(04:25):
over her. It's something like the Bible story of Leah
and Rachel, young chance. Dan Ferrer likes the one, and
he's bound by promise to the other. As to the
French Jade, concluded Hill, giving his head a toss. She'd
make a show of liking any man that followed her.
She would a dozen of them on a string. It

(04:49):
was very well for surly Hill to call Daniel Ferrer
a nice lot. But He was the best looking fellow
in the church on Sunday morning. Well dressed too, but
his color seemed brighter and his his hands shook as
they were raised, often to push back his hair that
the sun shone upon through the south window, turning it
to gold. He scarcely looked up, not even at Harriet Row,

(05:11):
with her dark eyes rowing everywhere and her streaming pink ribbons.
Maria Lees was pale, quiet and nice as usual. She
had no beauty, but her face was sensible, and her
deep gray eyes had a strange and curious earnestness. The
new parson preached, a young man just appointed to the
parish of Crabb. He went in for great observances on

(05:32):
Saints Days and told his congregation that he should expect
to see them at church on the morrow, which would
be the Feast of Old Saints. Daniel Ferrer walked home
with missus Lees and Maria after service and was invited
to dinner. I ran across to shake hands with the
old dame who had once nursed me through an illness,
and promised to look in and see her later. We

(05:54):
were going back to school on the morrow. As I
turned away, Harriet rode passed her pink ribbons and a
cheap gay silk dress, gleaming in the sunlight. She stared
at me, and I stared back. And now the explanation
of matters being over real story begins, but I shall
have to tell some of it as it was told
by others. The tea things waited on missus Lees's table

(06:17):
in the afternoon, waited for Daniel Ferrer. He had left
them shortly before to go and attend to his poultry.
Nothing had been said about his coming back for tea.
That he would do so had been looked upon as
a matter of course. But he did not make his appearance,
and the tea was taken without him. At half past five,
the church bell rang out for evening service, and Maria

(06:39):
put her things on Missus Lee's did not go out
at night. You are starting early, Maria, you being church
before other people. That won't matter. Mother. A jealous suspicion
lay on Maria that the secret of Daniel Ferrer's absence
was his having fallen in with Harriet Row. Perhaps he
had gone of his own accord to seek her. She

(07:00):
walked slowly along the gloom of dusk, and a deep
dusk had stolen over the evening, but the moon would
be up later. As Maria passed the schoolhouse, she halted
to glance in at the little sitting room window. The
shutters were not closed yet, and the room was lighted
by the blazing fire. Harriet was not there. She only

(07:20):
saw Miss Timmans, the mistress, who was putting on her
bonnet before a hand glass propped upright on the mantelpiece.
Without warning, Miss Timmans turned and threw open the window.
It was only for the purpose of pulling to the shutters,
but Maria thought she must have been observed and spoke,
good evening, Miss Timmans. Who is it, cried out Miss

(07:41):
Timmans in answer, peering into the dusk. Oh it's you, Maria,
Lase have you seen anything of Harriet. She went off
somewhere this afternoon and never came in to tea. I
have not seen her. She's gone to Badly's. I'll be bound.
She knows. I don't like her to be with the
Badly girls. They make her ten times flightier than she

(08:02):
would otherwise be. Miss Timmins drew in her shutters with
a jerk, without which they would not close, and Maria
least turned away, not that the Padleys, not at the Padleys,
but with him. She cried in bitter rebellion as she
turned away from the church, from the church, not to
It was Maria to blame for wishing to see whether

(08:25):
she was right or not, for walking about a little
in the thought of meeting them. At any rate, it
is what she did and had her reward, such as
it was. As she was passing the top of the
withy walk, their voices reached her ear. People often walked
there and it was one of the ways to salt crap.
Maria drew back amidst the trees, and they came on,

(08:47):
Harriet Rowe and Daniel Ferrer, walking arm in arm. I
think I had better take it off, Harriet was saying,
no need to invoke a storm upon my head, and
that would come in a shower of hail from stiffle
aunt Timmins. The answer seemed one of quick accent, but
Ferr spoke low. Maria Lees had hard work to control herself. Anger, passion,

(09:11):
jealousy all blazed up with her arms stretched out to
a friendly tree on either side, with her heart beating,
with her pulses coursing on to a fever heat. She
watched them across the bit of Common to the road.
Harriet went one way, then he another, in the direction
of Missus Lees's cottage, no doubt to fetch her Maria

(09:32):
to church with a plausible excuse of having been detained
until now. She had had no proof of his falseness,
had never perfectly believed in it. She took her arms
from the trees and went forward, a sharp, faint cry
of despair breaking forth on the night air. Maria Lees
was one of those silent natured girls who could never

(09:52):
speak of a wrong likeness. She had to bury it
within her, down, down, out of sight, and show went
into church with her usual quiet step. Harriet rode with
Miss Timmins came next, quite demure, as if she had
been singing some of the infant scholars to sleep at
their own homes. Daniel Ferrer did not go to church

(10:13):
at all. He stayed, as was found afterwards, with Missus Lees.
Maria might as well have been at home as at church.
Better perhaps that she had been not a syllable of
the service did she hear? Her brain was a sea
of confusion, the tumult within it rising higher and higher.
She did not hear even the text Peace Be Still

(10:35):
or the sermon, both so singularly appropriate. The passions in
men's minds, the preacher said, raged and formed, just like
the angry waves of the sea in a storm, until
Jesus came to still them. I ran after Maria when
church was over, and went in to pay the promised
visit to old mother Lese. Daniel Ferrer was sitting in

(10:56):
the parlor. He got up and offered Maria a chair
at the fire, but she turned her back and stood
at the table under the window, taking off her gloves.
An open Bible was before missus Le's I wonder whether
she had been reading aloud to Daniel. What was the text, child,
asked the old lady. No answer, do you hear, Maria?

(11:16):
What was the text? Maria turned at that as if
suddenly awakened. Her face was white, her eyes had in
them an uncertain terror. The text, she stammered, I I
forgot it, mother. It was from Jenesis, I think was it?
Was it? Master Johnny? It was from the fourth chapter

(11:38):
of Saint Mark, Peace Be Still. Missus Lee stared at me.
Why that is the very chapter I have been reading? Well,
now that's curious. But there's never a better in the Bible,
and never a better text was taken from it than
those three words. I have been telling Daniel here, Master Johnny,

(12:00):
that when once that peace, Christ's peace is got into
the heart, storms can't hurt as much. And you are
going away again to morrow, sir, she added, after a pause,
it's a short stay. I was not going away on
the morrow. Tod and I, taking the Squire in a
genial moment after dinner, had pressed to let stay until Tuesday. Todd,

(12:22):
using the argument and laughing while he did it, that
it must be wrong to travel on All Saints Day,
when the parson had especially enjoined us to be at church.
The Squire told us we were a couple of encroaching rascals,
and if he did let us stay, it should be
upon condition that we did go to church. This I
said to him. He may send you all the same, sir,

(12:43):
when the morning comes, remarked Daniel Ferrer. Knowing mister Todd
Hetley as you do, Ferr, you may remember that he
never breaks his promises. Daniel laughed. He grumbles over them, though,
Master Johnny, Well he may grumble to to morrow about
us staying, saying it is wasting time that ought to
be spent in study. But he will not send us

(13:06):
back until Tuesday. Until Tuesday, If I could have foreseen,
then what would have happened before Tuesday? If all of
us could have foreseen, seen the few hours between now
and then, depicted as in a mirror, event by event,
would it have saved the calamity, the dreadful sin that
could never be redeemed? Why, yes, surely it would. Daniel

(13:28):
Ferrr turned and looked at Maria. Why don't you come
to the fire. I am very well here, thank you.
She had sat down where she was, her bonnet touching
the curtain. Missus Lees, not noticing that anything was wrong,
had begun talking about Lena, whose illness was turning to
low fever. When the door opened and Harriet Roke came in.

(13:50):
What a lovely night it is, she said, taking off
own a cord the chair I had not cared to
take for I kept saying, I must go. Maria, Eh,
what went with you after church? I hunted for you everywhere.
Maria gave no answer. She looked black and angry, and
her bosom heaved as if a storm were brewing. Harriet

(14:11):
Rose slightly laughed do you intend to take holiday? To
morrow missus Lees? Me take holiday? What is there? And
to morrow to take holiday for returned Missus Lees, I shall,
continued Harriet, not answering the question. I have been used
to it. In France, All Saints Day is a grand holiday.

(14:31):
There we go to church in our best clothes and
pay visits afterwards, following it like a dark shadow comes
to gloomy ju They more the what cried Missus Lees,
spending her year the day of the dead, all Souls Day?
But you English don't go to the cemeteries to pray.
Missus Lees put on her spectacles, which lay upon the

(14:53):
open pages of the Bible, and stared at Harriet. Perhaps
she thought they might help her to understand, and the
girl laughed. On all Souls Day, whether it be wet
or dry, the French cemeteries are full of kneeling women,
draped in black, all praying for the repose of their
dead relatives, after the manner of the Roman Catholics. Daniel Ferrer,

(15:15):
who had not spoken words since she came in, but
sat with his face to the fire, turned and looked
at her, upon which she tossed back her head and
her pink ribbons, and smiled till all her teeth were seen,
good teeth, they were, as to reverence in her tone,
there was none I have seen them kneeling when the
slash and wet have been ankled deep. Did you ever

(15:37):
see a ghost? Added she with energy. The French believed
that the spirits of the dead come abroad on the
night of All Saints Day. You scarcely get a French
woman to go out of her house after dark. It
is their chief superstition. What is the superstition, questioned missus Les.
Why that, cried Harriet. They believe that the weed are

(16:00):
allowed to revisit the world after dark on the eve
of all Souls, that they hover in the air, waiting
to appear to any of their living relatives who may
venture out, lest they should forget to pray on the
morrow for the rest of their souls. Well, I never
cried missus Lees, staring excessively. Did you ever hear the
like of that? Sir? Turning to me, Yes, I've heard

(16:23):
of it, Harriet Rowe looked up at me. I was
standing at the corner of the mantelpiece. She laughed at
free laugh, I say, wouldn't it be fun? To go
out to morrow night and meet the ghosts. Only perhaps
they don't visit this country, as it is not under room.
Now you just behave yourself before your betters. Harriet Row

(16:43):
put in, Missus Lees, sharply that gentleman is young mister
Ludlow of crab Cot, and very happy I am to
make young mister Ludlow's acquaintance returned easy, Harriet flinging back
her mantle over his shoulders. How hot you parlor is,
missus Lees. The hood of the cloak had caught in

(17:04):
a thin chain of twisted gold that she wore round
her neck, displaying it to view. She hurriedly folded her
cloak together as a wishing to conceal the chain, but
Missus Lees's spectacles had seen it. What's that you've got on, Harriet?
A gold chain? A moment's pause, and then Harriet Roe
flung back her mantle again, defiance upon her face, and

(17:27):
touched the chain with her hand. That's what it is,
Missus Lees. A gold chain, and a very pretty one too,
Was it you mother's? It was never anybody's but mine.
I had it made a present to me this afternoon
for a keepsake happening to look at Maria. I was
startled at a face. It was so white and dark,

(17:50):
white with emotion, dark, with an angry despair that I,
for one did not comprehend. Harriet Rowe, throwing at her
a look of saucy triumph, went out with as little
ceremony as she had come in, just calling back a
general good night, and we heard of footsteps outside getting
gradually fainter in the distance. Daniel Ferrer a rose. I'll

(18:14):
take my departure too. I think you are very unsociable
to night Maria. Perhaps I am, Perhaps I have caused
to be. She flung his hand back when he held
it out, and in another moment, as if a thought
struck her, ran after him into the passage to speak. I,
standing near the door in the small room, caught the

(18:36):
words I must have an explanation with you, Daniel Ferrer,
now to night. We cannot go on thus for a
single hour longer, not to night, Maria. I have no
time to spare, and I don't know what you mean.
You do know, listen, I will not go to my rest,
no though it were for twenty nights to come, until

(18:58):
we have had it out. I wow, I will not there.
You are playing with me. Others have said so, and
I know it now. He seemed to speak some quieting
words to her, for the tone was low and soothing,
and then went out, closing the door behind him. Maria
came back and stood with a face and its ghastliness
turned from us. And still the old mother noticed nothing.

(19:22):
Why don't you take your things off, Maria, she asked,
Presently was the answer? I said good night in my turn,
and bent away. Half way home, I met Todd with
the two young Lexams. The Lexams made us go in
and stay to supper, and it was ten o'clock before
we left them. We shall catch it, said Todd, setting

(19:43):
off at a run. They never let us stay out
late on a Sunday evening on account of the reading.
But as it happened, we escaped scot free this time,
for the house was in a commotion about Lena. She
had been better in the afternoon, but at nine o'clock
the fever returned. Word she ever, her little cheeks and
lips were scarlet as she lay on the bed. Her

(20:04):
wide open eyes were bright and glistening. The squire had
gone up to look at her and was fuming and
fretting in his usual fashion. The doctor never sent the medicine,
said patient missus Todd Hetley, who must have been borne
out with nursing. She ought to take it. I'm sure
she ought. These boys are good to run over the

(20:25):
coals for that, cried the squire. It won't hurt them.
It's a fine night. Of course. We were good for it,
and we got our caps again, being charged to enjoin
mister Cole to come over the first thing in the morning.
Do you care much about my going with you, Johnny
Toad asked, as we were turning out at the door.

(20:45):
I'm awfully tired, not a bit. I'd as soon go
alone as not. He'll see me back in half an hour.
I took the nearest way, flying across the fields at
a canter and startling the hares. Mister Cole lived near
South Crabb and I don't believe more than ten minutes
had gone by when I knocked at his door. But

(21:06):
to get back as quickly was another thing. The doctor
was not at home. He had been called out to
a patient at eight o'clock and had not yet returned.
I went to wait. The servant said he might be
expected to come in from minute to minute. It was
of no use to go away without the medicine, and
I sat down in the surgery in front of the
shelves and fell asleep, counting the white jars and physic bottles.

(21:29):
The doctor's entrance awoke me. Well, I'm sorry you should
have had to come over and to wait, he said.
When my other patient, with whom I was detained a
considerable time was done with, I went on to Crapcot
with a child's medicine which I had in my pocket.
They think are very ill. To night, sir, I left
her better and going quietly to sleep. She will soon

(21:53):
be well again, I hope. Why is that the time?
I exclaimed, happening to catch Si the clock as I
was crossing the hall, It was near twelve. Mister Cole laughed,
saying time passed quickly when folk were asleep. I went
back slowly. The sleep or the canter before it had
made me feel as tired as Tod had said he was.

(22:14):
It was a night to be abroad, inn and doing joy. Calm,
warm light, The moon high in the sky illumined every
blade of grass sparkled on the water of the little trivulet,
brought out the moss and the gray walls of the
old church played on its round faced clock, then striking
twelve twelve o'clock at night at nort crab answers to

(22:36):
about three in the morning in London. For country people
are mostly in bed and asleep at ten. Therefore, when
loud and angry voices struck up in dispute, just as
the last stroke of the hour was dying away on
the midnight air, I stood still and doubted my ears.
I was getting near home. Then the sounds came from
the back of a building standing alone in a solitary

(22:58):
place on the left hand side of the road. It
belonged to the Squire and was called the Yellow Barn,
its walls being covered with a yellow wash, but it
was in fact used as a storehouse for corn. I
was passing in front of it when the voices rose
upon the air round the building. I ran and saw
Maria Lees and something else that I could not at

(23:20):
first comprehend. In the pursuit of a vow not to
go to rest until she had had it out with
Daniel Ferrer, Maria had been abroad searching for him. What
ill fate brought her looking for him up near our barn,
perhaps because she had fruitlessly searched in every other spot.
At the back of this barn, up some steps, was
an unused door, unused partly because it was not required,

(23:44):
the principal entrance being in front, partly because the key
of it had been for a long time missing. Stealing
out at this door a bag of corn upon his
shoulders had come Daniel Ferrer, in a smock frock. Maria
saw him and stood back in the shade. She watched
him lock the door and put the key in his pocket.
She watched him give the heavy bag a jerk as

(24:05):
he turned to come down the steps. Then she burst
out her loud reproaches petrified him, and he stood there
as one suddenly turned to stone. It was at that
moment that I appeared. I understood it all too soon.
It needed not Maria's words to enlighten me. Daniel Ferrer
possessed the lost key and could come in and out

(24:26):
at will in the midnight hours when the world was sleeping,
and help himself to the corn. No wonder his poultry throve,
No wonder. There had been grumblings that crab caught at
the mysterious disappearance of the good grain. Maria Lees was
decidedly mad in those first few moments. Stealing is looked
upon in an honest village as an awful thing, a disgrace,

(24:48):
a crime. And there was the Knight's earlier misery. Besides,
Daniel Ferroh was a thief. Daniel Ferroer was false to her.
A storm of words and reproaches poured forth from her
her in confusion, none of it very distinct. Leving Ubonfeldt
convicted felon transportation for life. Squire thought at least corn

(25:10):
fattening poultry on stolen goods, burying gold chains with the
prophets for that bold flaunting French girl Harriet Rowe, taking
his stealthy walks with her. My going up to them,
stopped the charge. There was a pause, and then Maria,
in her mad passion, denounced him to me as representative.
So she put it up the squire, the breaker in

(25:33):
upon our premises, the robber of our stored corn, Daniel
Pharaoh came down the steps. He had remained still there
as a statue, immovable, and turned his white face to me,
never a word in defense, said he the blow had
crushed him. He was a proud man, if any one
can understand that, and to be discovered in this ill

(25:54):
doing was worse than death to him. Don't think of
me more hardly than you can help help, Master Johnny,
he said, in a quiet tone, I have been almost
tired of my life this long. While putting down the
bag of corn near the steps, he took the key
from his pocket and handed it to me. The man's
aspect had so changed. There was something so grievously subdued

(26:17):
and sad about him altogether, that I felt as sorry
for him as if he had not been guilty. Maria
Lees went on, in her fiery passion. You will be
more tired of it to morrow, when the police are
talking to you invis de gal Squire thought, Hettley will
not spay you. Though your father was his many years bailiff,

(26:38):
he could not, you know if he wished. Master Ladlow
has seen you in the act. Let me have the
key again for a minute, sir, he said, as quietly
as though he had not heard a word, and I
gave it to him. I'm not sure, but I should
have given him my head had he asked for it.
He swung the bag on his shoulders, unlocked the granary
door and put the bag beside the other side. The

(27:01):
bag was his own, as we found afterwards, but he
left it there, locking the door again. He gave me
the key and went away with a weary step. Good Bye,
Master Johnny, I answered back, good night, Civilly, though he
had been stealing. When he was out of sight, Maria
e ease, her passion full upon her still dashed off

(27:22):
toward her mother's cottage, a strange cry of despair breaking
from her lips. Where have you been lingering, Johnny, rowed
the squire who was setting up for me. You have
been throwing at the owls, sir, that's what you've been at.
You have been cutting after the hares. I said, I
had waited for mister Cole and had come back slower

(27:42):
than I went. But I said no more and went
up to my room at once, and the squire went
to his. I know I am only a muff, people
tell me so often, but I can't help it. I
did not make myself. I lay awake till nearly daylight,
first wishing Daniel Ferr could be screamed, and then thinking

(28:03):
it might perhaps be done if he would only take
the lesson to heart and go straight for the future.
What a capital thing it would be. We had liked
old Ferrh he had done me and toaught many a
good turn, and for that matter, we like Daniel. So
I never said a word. When morning came of the
past night's work. Is Daniel home? I asked, Going to

(28:26):
Ferrer's the first thing before breakfast, I meant to tell
him that if he would keep right, I would keep counsel.
He went out at dawn, Sir, answered the old woman
who did for him and sold his poultry at market.
He'll be in presently. He have had no breakfast yet.
Then tell him when he comes to waitin and see me.

(28:47):
Tell him it's all right. Can you remember? Could he?
It is all right, I'll remember, safe enough, Master Ludlow
Todd and I, being on our honor, went to church
and found ten people in the pews. Harriet Rove was
one with a pink ribbons the twisted gold chain showing
outside a short cut velvet jacket. No, Sir, he has

(29:11):
not been home yet. I can't think where he can
have got to, was the old Goody's reply. When I
went again to Ferr's, and so I wrote a word
in pencil and told her to give it to him
when he came in, for I could not go dodging
there every hour of the day after luncheon, strolling by
the back of the barn, a certain reminiscence, I suppose,

(29:31):
taking me there, for it was not a frequented spot.
I saw Maria Lees coming along. Well. It was a change.
The passionate woman of the previous night had subsided into
a poor, wild looking, sorrow stricken thing, ready to die
of remorse. Excessive passion had wrought its usual consequences, a reaction,

(29:53):
a reaction in favor of Daniel Ferrer. She came up
to me, clasping her hands in agony, beseeching that I
would spare him, that I would not tell of him,
that I would give him a chance for the future.
And her lips quivered and trembled, and there were dark
circles round her hollow eyes. I said that I had
not told, and did not intend to tell, upon which

(30:16):
she was going to fall down on her knees, but
I rushed off. Do you know where he is? I asked,
when she came to her sober senses. Oh I wish
I did know, Master Johnny. He is just the man
to go and do something desperate. He would never face shame.
And I was a mad, hard hearted, wicked girl to

(30:36):
do what I did last night. He might run away
to see he might go in enlist for a soldier.
I dare say he is at home by this time.
I have left a word for him there, and promised
to go in and see him to night. If he
will undertake not to be up to wrong things again.
No one shall ever know of this from me. She
went away easier, and I sauntered on towards South Crabb,

(31:00):
eager as todd than I had been for the day's holiday.
It did not seem to be turning out much of
a boon in going home again. There was nothing worth
staying out, for I had come to the spot by
the three Cornered Grove where I saw Maria. When a
galloping policeman overtook me. My heart stood still, for I
thought he must have come after Daniel Ferrer. Can you

(31:21):
tell me if I am near to grab cort Squire
Todd Hetley's, he asked, reining in his horse. You will
reach it in a minute or two. I live there,
Squire Todd Hetley is not at home. What do you
want with him. It's only to give it an official paper, Sir,
I have to leave one personally upon all the county magistrates.

(31:44):
He rode on. When I got in, I saw the
folded paper upon the hall table. The man and horse
had already gone onwards. It was worse in those than out.
Less to be done. Todd had disappeared after church, the
squire was abroad. Missus Todd Hetley sat up stairs with Lena,
and I strolled out again. It was only three o'clock.
Then an hour or more was got through somehow, meeting

(32:08):
one talking to another, throwing at the ducks and geese anything.
Missus Lees had her head smothered in a yellow shawl,
stretched out over the palings as I passed a cottage.
Don't catch cold, mother. I am looking for Maria, Sir.
I can't think what has come to her to day
Master Johnny, she added, dropping a voice to a confidential tone.

(32:30):
The girl seems demented. She has been going in and
out ever since daylight, like a dog in a fair.
If I meet her, I will send her home. And
in another minute I did meet her, for she was
coming out of Daniel Ferrer's yard. I suppose he was
at home again. No, she said, looking more wild, worn

(32:52):
haggard than before. That's what I have been to ask.
I am just out of my senses, sir. He has
gone for certain I did not like it. He would
not be likely to go away without clothes. Well, I
know he is Master Johnny. Something tells me. I've been
all about everywhere. There's a great dread upon me, Sir,

(33:15):
I have never felt anything like Wait until night, Maria,
I dare say he will go home. Then. Your mother
is looking out for you, I said. If I met you,
i'd send you in mechanically. She turned towards the cottage
and I went on presently. As I was sitting on
a gate watching the sun set, Harriet rode past towards

(33:35):
the withy walk and gave me a nod in her
free but good natured way. Are you going there to
look out for the ghosts this evening? I asked, and
I wished not long afterwards that I had not said it.
It will soon be dark, So it will, she said,
turning to the red sky in the west. But I
have no time to give to the ghost to night.

(33:57):
Have you seen ferer to day? I cried, and idea
occurring to me. No, and I can't think where he
has got to unless he is after Worcester. He told
me he should have to go there some day this week.
She evidently knew nothing about him, and went on away
with another free and easy nod. I sat on the
gate till the sun had gone down, and then thought

(34:18):
it was time to be getting homewards. Close against the
yellow barn, the scene of last night's trouble. Whom should
I come upon but Maria Lease. She was standing still
and turned quickly at the sound of my footsteps. Her
face was bright again, but had a puzzled look upon it.
I have just seen him. He is not gone, she said,

(34:39):
in a happy whisper. You were right, Master Johny, and
I was wrong. Where did you see him here? Not
a minute ago? I saw him twice. He is angry,
very and will not let me speak to him. Both
times he got away before I could reach him. He
is close by somewhere. I looked round naturally, but Pharaoh

(35:02):
was nowhere to be seen. There was nothing to conceal
him except the barn, and that was locked up. The
account she gave was this, and her face grew puzzled
again as she related it. Unable to rest indoors, She
had wandered up here again and saw Farah standing at
the corner of the barn, looking very hard at her.
She thought he was waiting for her to come up,

(35:24):
but before she got close to him, he had disappeared,
and she did not see which way. She hastened past
the front of the barn, ran round to the back,
and there he was. He stood near the steps, looking
out for her, waiting for her, as it again seemed,
and was gazing at her with the same fixed stare.
But again she missed him before she could quite get up.

(35:45):
And it was at that moment that I arrived in
the scene. I went all round the barn, but I
could see nothing of Pharaoh. It was an extraordinary thing.
Where he could have got to inside the barn, he
could not be. It was securely locked, and there was
no appearance of him in the open country. It was
so to say, broad daylight, yet, or at least not

(36:06):
far short of it. The red light was still in
the west. Beyond the field. At the back of the
barn was a grove of trees in the form of
a triangle, and this grove was flanked by grab Ravin,
which ran right and left. Grab Ravin had the reputation
of being haunted, for a light was sometimes seen dodging
about its deep descending banks at night that no one

(36:26):
could account for a lively spot altogether for those who
liked gloom. Are you sure it was ferer Maria? Sure
she returned in surprise. You don't think I could mistake him,
Master Johnnie. Do you he wore that ugly sealed skin
winter cap of this tied over his ears, and his
thick gray coat. The coat was buttoned closely round him.

(36:49):
I have not seen him wear either since last winter.
That Farah must have gone into hiding somewhere seemed quite evident,
and yet there was nothing but the ground to receive him.
Maria had lost sight of him the last time in
a moment, both times, in fact, and it was absolutely
impossible that he could have made off to the triangle

(37:10):
or elsewhere, as she must have seen him cross the
open land. For that matter, I must have seen him
also on the whole. Not two minutes had elapsed since
I came up, though it seemed to have been longer
in telling it. When before we could look further, voices
were heard approaching from the direction of crab Cot, and Maria,

(37:30):
not caring to be seen, went away quickly. I was
still puzzled about Ferer's hiding place. When they reached me,
the Squire Tod and two or three men. Tod came slowly,
his face dark and grave. I say, Johnnie, what a
shocking thing? This is? What is a shocking thing? You
have not heard of it? But I don't see how

(37:52):
you could hear it. I had heard nothing. I did
not know what there was to hear. Tod told me
in a whisper. Daniel Ferrier's dared the lad what he
has destroyed himself not more than half an hour ago,
hung himself in the grove. I turned sick, taking one
thing with another. Comparing this recollection with that which I

(38:16):
dare say, you will think no one but a muff
For two Pharaoh was indeed dead. He had been hiding
all day in the three cornered grove, perhaps waiting for
night to get away, perhaps only waiting for night to
go home again. Who can tell? About half past two?
Luke Macintosh, a man who sometimes worked for us, sometimes
for Old Coney, happening to go to the grove, saw

(38:39):
him there and talked with him. The same man, passing
back a little before sunset, found him hanging from a
tree dead. Macintosh ran with the news to crab Cot,
and there they were now flocking to the scene. When
facts came to be examined, there appeared only too much
reason to think that the unfortunate appearance of the galloping
policeman had terrified Pharaoh into the act. Perhaps we all

(39:02):
hoped it had scared his senses quite away. Look at
it as we would, it was very dreadful. But what
did the appearance? Maria Leese saw at that time Pharaoh
had been dead at least half an hour. Was it
reality or delusion? That is, as a squire put it,
did her eyes see a real spectral Daniel Ferroh or

(39:26):
were they deceived by some imagination of the brain? Opinions
were divided. Nothing can shake her own steadfast belief in
its reality. To her, it remains an awful certainty, true
and sure as heaven. If I say I believe in
it too, I shall be called a muff and a
double muff. But there is no stumbling block difficult to

(39:48):
be caught over. Pharaoh, when found was wearing the seal
skin cap, tied over the years, and a thick gray
coat buttoned up round him, just as Maria Leese had
described to me, And he had never them since the
previous winter, or taken them out of the chest where
they were kept. The old woman at his home did
not know he had done it then, but when told

(40:09):
he had died in these things, she protested that they
were in the chest, and ran up to look for them,
but the things were gone. End of reality or delusion
by Missus Henry Wood