The Ghost of Charlotte Cray, and Other Stories is an 1883 collection by Florence Marryat, mixing ghost stories, domestic sketches, and travel pieces. The title tale follows a prosperous publisher, Mr Sigismund Braggett, whose comfortable new marriage is disturbed by an awkward memory from his past. These varied, atmospheric stories reward listeners who enjoy Victorian suspense and character-driven mystery.
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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
THE GHOST OF CHARLOTTE CRAY AND OTHER STORIES. BY FLORENCE MARRYAT (MRS. FRANCIS LEAN), AUTHOR OF “LOVE’S CONFLICT,” “FACING THE FOOTLIGHTS,” ETC., ETC. COPYRIGHT EDITION. LEIPZIG BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ 1883. The Right of Translation is reserved. CONTENTS. THE GHOST OF CHARLOTTE CRAY
THE INVISIBLE TENANTS OF RUSHMERE
AMY’S LOVER
LITTLE WHITE SOULS
STILL WATERS
CHIT-CHAT FROM ANDALUSIA
THE SECRET OF ECONOMY
“MOTHER”
IN THE HEART OF THE ARDENNES
A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHTMARE
THE
GHOST OF CHARLOTTE CRAY.
Mǡ. SƗƄƗǪƽǼƿŠ BǡĵƄƄŧǵǵ was sitting in the little room he called his study, wrapped in a profound—not to say a mournful—reverie.
Now, there was nothing in the present life nor surroundings of Mr.
Braggett to account for such a demonstration. He was a publisher and bookseller; a man well to do, with a thriving business in the city, and the prettiest of all pretty villas at Streatham. And he was only just turned forty; had not a grey hair in his head nor a false tooth in his mouth; and had been married but three short months to one of the fairest and most affectionate specimens of English womanhood that ever transformed a bachelor’s quarters into Paradise.
What more could Mr. Sigismund Braggett possibly want? Nothing!
His trouble lay in the fact that he had got rather more than he wanted. Most of us have our little peccadilloes in this world— awkward reminiscences that we would like to bury five fathoms deep, and never hear mentioned again, but that have an uncomfortable habit of cropping up at the most inconvenient moments; and no mortal is more likely to be troubled with them than a middle-aged bachelor who has taken to matrimony.
Mr. Sigismund Braggett had no idea what he was going in for when he led the blushing Emily Primrose up to the altar, and swore to be
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