Defoe's Factual Ghost Story

      The story is both ghostly and factual, and when Mrs. Bargrave told it later on, the most impressive detail involved a handsome dress her old friend Mrs. Veal was wearing the day she stopped in for a visit. The dress was new since the two women had last met, and t was made of scoured silk. Several times in the nearly two hours the friends talked she leaned forward to feel the material.

      The two women had been close friends in Dover but had been out of touch for two and a half years. In the meantime Mrs. Bargrave had moved to Canterbury. Mrs. Veal apologized for her neglect and explained that she had come by that day because she was leaving on a journey and wanted to renew their friendship. Mrs. Bargrave was surprised by this news, since she new that her friend was prone to epileptic fits and rarely traveled except when her brother was free to accompany her. When she remarked on this, Mrs. Veal replied oddly, "Oh, I gave my brother a slip."

      The two women talked of their past adversities, the comfort they had given each other, and their health. Mrs. Veal asked anxiously asked whether Mrs. Bargrave didn't think that she, Mrs. Veal, had declined terribly since they had last met. Mrs. Bargrave answered, "No, I think you looked as well as I ever new you." Mrs. Veal then asked after Mrs. Bargrave's daughter, and her friend went off in search of the girl. Mrs. Bargrave returned without her daughter to find Mrs. Veal waiting, ready to leave.

      Mrs. Veal then walked off down the street, and Mrs. Bargrave watched until she had turned the corner. The clocked had struck noon when Mrs. Veal first appeared; it was now 1:45. It was a Saturday, September 8, 1705.

      Two days later, Mrs. Bargrave paid a call on Captain and Mrs. Watson, relatives of Mrs. Veal's. The Watsons had just learned that Mrs. Veal had died about noon on the previous Friday, some 24 hours before she appeared at Mrs. Bargrave's house. Astonished, Mrs. Bargrave described the visit and made a point of mentioning the dress her friend had worn. Mrs. Watson knew it well; she had helped Mrs. Veal make it, and only the two of them had known that the silked was heavily washed, or scoured.