A servant girl makes a pact with a mysterious stranger, in this tale rescued from the now defunct ‘More Uncanny’ section.
Here is another story from F G Lee’s ‘Sights and Shadows’, published in 1894. This one is even more unlikely than many of Lee’s – indeed, the author himself describes it as: ‘More like a medieval romance than a record of the present age.’ He says he learnt it on the authority of a Mr Newton Crosland, of Dulwich, whom he describes as: ‘A gentleman who has devoted considerable learning and constant attention to many forms of the supernatural, and is moreover well known in London literary circles.’ Here we go:
‘In the early part of the present century [ie the 19th], a female servant, who lived in a well-known county family of position and rank, fell desperately in love with her young master, the only son and heir to a large property. Her passion seemed hopeless, and, being a good, modest girl, she kept it a secret. The young gentleman treated her with cool and polite indifference, but her love had taken such entire possession of her soul, that she could not subdue it; and it seemed as if it was her fate to sink under the weight of her ungratified desire.
‘One day, when she was going up the stairs, she met a strange gentleman, who accosted her thus: “I know the secret which is eating into your life, and I will assist you to realize your fond hope on one condition. I will endeavour to bring about a marriage between you and your young master, providing you sign this paper, stipulating that you will come to me after you have been married to him twenty-one years.”
‘The stranger seemed so respectable and earnest, that the girl at once acceded to his proposal. In fact, to obtain the object of her love she would have signed any agreement, however harsh in its terms. She accordingly went into an adjoining room and signed the document which the gentleman laid before her. He then took it away, leaving her to ruminate over this singular adventure.
‘Soon afterwards she noticed a decided change in the manner of her young master towards her; and at last he professed the most devoted attachment to her. Bye-and-bye the engagement of these two young persons became a matter too evident to be unobserved. The family endeavoured to prevent such a mésalliance, but destiny was against their interference. The young man was determined to have his way; and as the girl was most estimable in her pesonal qualities, the family demed it prudent to withdraw their opposition. Accordingly she was sent away to a school to acquire the education necessary to fit her for her future station.
‘In due time she was married, and entered upon her new duties most discreetly and happily. It is asserted that neither husband nor wife ever repented of the bargain. He was attentive and indulgent, she was wise, loving and gentle. On their twenty-first wedding day the husband determined to have a grand ball. His wife acquiesced in the plan; but on the eventful night she was observed to be depressed. At the same time she desired to have the assistance of her spiritual adviser. His attendance, however, could not be procured, and she was consequently obliged to dipense with it.
‘In the course of the evening, she left the drawing-room and, as she was absent a long time, her husband went in search of her. He found her on the bed, lifeless; with the fatal paper, which she had signed more than twenty-one years before, in her hand.”
I suspect this fairy story, which clearly has links with yarns about pacts made with the devil, was a romance told among young female servants – no doubt as having taken place a generation or two ago in the very house they were working in (no matter where that might be). Perhaps the presence of just such a heart-throb ‘young master’ would spark its retelling.
