29) “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” by Edith Wharton
Plot:
After recovering from typhoid, Alice Hartley has difficulty finding another position. The ladies she applies to look at her pale complexion and her thin limbs and decline her services. Alice is at the end of her rope.
A chance meeting with Mrs. Railton, a friend of a former employer, leads her to the country house of Mrs. Railton’s niece, Mrs. Brympton, a youngish woman who is something of an invalid. Her lady’s maid died in the spring, and she’s looking for someone to replace her.
Mrs. Railton warns Alice, “[I]t’s not a cheerful place I’m sending you to. The house is big and gloomy; my niece is nervous, vaporish; her husband—well, he’s generally away; and the two children are dead. A year ago, I would as soon have thought of shutting a rosy active girl like you into a vault; but you’re not particularly brisk yourself just now, are you?”
Her niece is an angel. All the servants love her. Alice might be bored, but she will not be unhappy.
Alice is grateful, and leaves that afternoon.
Mrs. Brympton has a visitor when she arrives, so she cannot meet her immediately. Agnes, the housemaid, shows her to her room. The light is poor, but Alice believes she sees a pale woman in a dark dress and apron. She finds it odd that the woman doesn’t speak but merely withdraws. She later sees the same woman when she’s downstairs at the servants’ tea. The woman behaves the same way. Alice figures she’s Mrs. Brympton’s nurse.
Thoughts:
“The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” is a nice little ghost story. It’s not scary, per se, but enough odd things occur that the reader knows this isn’t your average bear. The atmosphere is thick and suggestive. Everything changes when Mr. Brympton, who gives off serious tyrant vibes, shows up. Mr. Wace, the butler, spouts Bible verses habitually. The nature of his verses changes enough to make Alice wonder if such things are really in the Good Book.
Mr. Brympton is good friends with the neighbor, Mr. Ralston, who is Mrs. Brympton’s frequent guest when he’s away. The two are forever trading books and having long discussions.
The ending is dramatic but a little hard to puzzle out. What happened? I can appreciate that Wharton is trying to be delicate about such a topic as marital infidelity. Still, a bigger hint than a gentleman caller limping would be a big help.
At the same time, I like the ghost hanging out, checking out who was taking care of her mistress. If they didn’t measure up, she was happy to scare the bejesus out of them. She seems to approve of Alice, but not of everyone.
This story can be read here:
This story can be listened to here: (53:55)
Bio: Edith Wharton (1962-1937) was a US writer, poet, and short story writer. She is best remembered for her novels The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, and Ethan Frome, which college literature profs like to assign. She also wrote books on travel, design, and poetry, as well as supernatural short stories. She won a Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence. Her works tend to focus on the trials and tribulations of upper-class Gilded Age society.
Title: “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell
Author: Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
First published: Scribner’s Magazine, November 1902.
Length: novelette
