THE GATELESS BARRIER

Lucas Malet (Mary St. Leger Kingsley)

Laurence Rivers is an Englishman living in America, married to Virginia, an American lady born into the New England upper classes.  He's comfortable in his marriage, but two years after the wedding, he's informed that his rich uncle in England is dying.  Eccentric and reclusive, the uncle is the owner of extensive property and a large mansion full of servants, a large selection of horses and a commodious supply of gardens with cultivated pathways, white marble statues and dark cypress trees.  Laurence arrives after a sea voyage and finds his relation bed-ridden and wasting away.  They converse and the uncle  makes clear his aversion to religion, spiritualism and reality itself as it is usually regarded.  He says: "Reality as we know it, being the biggest illusion of all".  But he's generous in other ways, giving Laurence the freedom of the house and grounds.

Laurence explores the house and finds an old tapestry with sirens and unicorns woven into the fabric suspended at the end of a hallway.  Behind it is a locked door that he manages to open;  he discovers that it leads into a music room, with a piano, various sorts of guitars and lyres lying about and some odds and ends of sheet music.  And he sees a young lady with her back to him, looking through the window into the garden.  She is a sylph-like being and while he watches, she slowly, without looking at him, glides over to the escritoire and vanishes behind it.  Laurence examines the back of the piece of furniture but is startled to find no method of egress from the room.  It's love at first sight, though, as he can't get her image out of his mind.

The uncle passes away after a while and Laurence takes over the management of the property.  He becomes more and more friendly with the young lady (Agnes Rivers);  they walk in the garden and Laurence falls more in love.  She tells him her history:  during the Napoleonic Wars, her affianced sweetheart was killed and she died of grief and has haunted the music room ever since, waiting his return.  His name was Laurence also, and the present owner of Stoke Rivers (the inherited property) is the identical image of her former lover.  

Virginia sends an urgent telegram requiring Laurence's presence back in America and he is faced with making a decision that he doesn't want to deal with, but finally decides to ignore the cable and stay with Agnes.  But even though she has been acquiring more and more traits of reality, such as a shadow, she knows that there is no future on earth for her and Laurence.  One day she says farewell and slowly vanishes behind the escritoire for the last time.  But not until she affirms that they will be reunited in the hereafter.  Laurence pines away but ultimately realizes that his earthly future depends on him asserting himself as a property owner, so he attends to business and returns to America to his wife.

But the life she leads seems boring and repetitions with all the parties and inane conversation so he returns to Stoke Rivers.  But while he was absent, there was a fire in the music room that opened up a hidden chamber behind the escritoire, and (spoiler) in it they discovered an old charred coffin with the  body of a young lady in it.  So they bury it in the churchyard and Laurence finds some peace in the affirmation that he and Agnes will be reunited in heaven.

Lucas Malet was the pseudonym of Ms. Kingsley, who came from a family of authors.  Her cousin Mary explored parts of Africa and wrote a book about her experiences.  Her uncles, Henry and Geoffrey were famous authors and her father Charles was well-known also, principally for his novel, "Westward Ho" although he wrote many more.  The Kingsley's all were top-notch wordsmiths, and i've enjoyed reading their works a lot.  Mary was a friend of E.F. Benson and she was acquainted with Henry James.  This book is available on Gutenberg...   

P.S.  the picture at the top is me with an old bike i assembled out of odds and ends...