Horror Malet, Lucas: The Carissima (ghost). v1. 16 Mar 2021

[GrannyGrump]

“I needn't go into details, Hammond,” Leversedge said. “That camp was dead. Even in the night, which decently hides a good deal, it was a ghastly place. I suppose they’d all died of thirst, they and the oxen. And I had fever on me. I shall never know quite all I did see. But in one of the wagons I made out a dead woman. Underneath it a dog was tied, a small, yellowish cur, the only thing left alive, and it yapped. And – and – there had been a child in the wagon, a little baby-child – and I suppose it had lived longer than the rest. And it must have crawled out over the tail of the wagon, and fallen close to the dog.…”

The horrible image of that dog came to haunt Leversedge – and in the end, when he was married (and happy, he thought), it came to rule his life. In the end, it would destroy him.

============
Mary St Leger [Kingsley] Harrison (1852-1931), daughter of Charles Kingsley (author of The Water Babies), wrote highly acclaimed fiction from the 1880s through the 1920s under the pseudonym “Lucas Malet.” Some of her novels received even more favorable critical notice in London literary circles than those of her friends Thomas Hardy, Henry James, and Mrs. Humphry Ward. The Wages of Sin (1891) and The History of Sir Richard Calmady (1901) were especially popular. She published three novels of the supernatural: The Carissima, The Gateless Barrier, and The Tall Villa.

============
Originally published 1896. This book is in the public domain where copyright is “Life+80” or less, and in the USA.
.

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

To report a copyright violation you can contact us here.