"IT IS QUITE possile that the main aim of ghosts,
if they still exist,
is to thwart the desires of mortal tenants,
appearing if their presence is unwelcome
and hiding away if it is expected or demanded.
Sometimes, however, agreements have been reached, as we know from various documents collected by Lord Halifax and Lord Rymer in the 1930s."

"According to Lord Rymer, the ghost of the eternal rustic youth
was not entirely lacking in understanding and he listened to reason
or else understood what gratitude meant: from then on, until her death,
Molly Morgan Muir awaited with excitement and impatience
the arrival of the day chosen by her impalpable,
silent love to return to the past of his time which, in fact,
there was no past and no time, the arrival of each Wednesday.
And it is thought that thhat was what kept her alive for many more years,
that is, with a past and a present and a future too
or perhaps it was just nostalgia."

By

Javier Marias