A Haunted House Summary

A "ghostly couple" is moving through the halls of a house, opening and closing doors and sifting through the house’s contents, clearly looking for something. They tell each other, “Here we left it,” “Oh, but here too!” and decide that thing they’re looking for must be upstairs—or maybe in the garden. They whisper to one another quietly as they search, careful not to “wake them.”

The narrator says that “one might” overhear the ghosts but continue to read quietly as the ghosts carry on their search. When one becomes convinced that the ghosts have finally “found it,” he or she might set the book down and get up to look for the ghosts. However, that person would find the house completely empty, doors all flung open, with the only sounds coming from the birds chirping outside.

The narrator asks himself or herself, "What did I come in here for?" and notes that his or her hands are empty. Going upstairs to look for “it,” the narrator just finds apples in the loft and heads back to the garden, which is “still as ever.” Meanwhile, the ghosts have "found it" in the drawing room, but they are invisible to the narrator. When the narrator enters the drawing room, trying to catch a glimpse of the ghosts, all the narrator sees is that an apple has shifted. Meanwhile, “the pulse of the house beat[s] softly,” saying, “Safe, safe, safe.” Someone or something says “The treasure buried; the room…” but trails off, and the pulse of the house stops abruptly. The narrator wonders if “that [is] the buried treasure.”

Looking out the window, the narrator remembers the history of the dead couple: the woman had been the first of the pair to die, "hundreds of years ago," and her husband left the house to travel the world soon after that. Eventually, he returned to their old home, which had "dropped beneath the Downs."

A storm rages in the dark outside, but the inside of the house is bright and still. The ghosts continue to move through the house, “seek[ing] their joy.” The ghosts reminisce about their own life in the house as they approach the bedroom of the narrator and the narrator’s partner, who are sleeping. The ghosts stand over the bed, peering down at the sleeping couple for a long while, and conclude that "Here we left our treasure—" The narrator, wakes up due to the light from the ghosts’ lamp and exclaims, "Oh, is this your buried treasure? The light in the heart."