Afterward recap

After making their fortune in America, Mary and Ned Boyne retire to Lyng, an old English house said to possess a ghost recognizable only after the encounter. Their life there seems peaceful, although Ned remains troubled by claims arising from his Blue Star mining business. Mary later sees a subdued stranger approach the house and assumes Ned receives him. Both men disappear, and every ordinary effort to trace Ned fails. An American visitor eventually tells Mary that Robert Elwell, financially ruined in a dispute with Ned, attempted suicide and later died. On seeing Elwell's likeness, Mary recognizes the stranger who came to Lyng. She realizes too late that Elwell's ghost collected Ned and that the house's legend was exact: its supernatural visitor could be understood only afterward.

After many years in America, Mary and Ned Boyne have acquired enough money to settle in England. They ask Mary's cousin Alida Stair to help them find a genuinely old country house. Mary is delighted when Alida describes Lyng in Dorset, especially when she says that it has a ghost. The haunting comes with an unusual condition: a person who sees the ghost will not know it at the time, but only afterward. The Boynes take the house, regarding the story as an agreeable addition to its age and seclusion rather than as a warning.

The Boynes settle comfortably into Lyng and enjoy the quiet life they had imagined. Nothing unmistakably supernatural occurs. Ned spends increasing amounts of time with documents from his former American business interests, however, and Mary senses that something is troubling him. His concern centers on complications from the Blue Star mine and on a claimant whose case has followed him across the Atlantic. The distant commercial dispute becomes the only visible disturbance in a house whose legendary danger otherwise seems dormant.

Mary learns more about the accusations surrounding Ned's Blue Star venture and the losses suffered by Robert Elwell. Ned insists that the matter is defensible, but his guarded behavior leaves her uneasy. Later, while at Lyng, Mary notices a subdued stranger walking toward the house. She assumes he has come on business and sees Ned apparently admit him. When she looks for her husband afterward, neither Ned nor the visitor can be found. There is no clear sign of a departure, accident, or deliberate flight, and the ordinary calm of the house makes the disappearance more bewildering.

Efforts to trace Ned produce no explanation. Parvis arrives from America with the outcome of the Blue Star affair: Robert Elwell, ruined by the dispute, had tried to take his own life and later died after a brief improvement. His death coincided with the period of Ned's disappearance. When Mary sees Elwell's likeness, she recognizes him as the stranger who came to Lyng. She at last understands the house's reputation. The visitor had been Elwell's ghost, and Ned vanished after receiving him. The supernatural encounter looked so ordinary that Mary could identify it only after later facts supplied its meaning, exactly as Alida had warned.

After Ned vanishes, Mary can find no evidence that he planned to leave or that any ordinary visitor departed with him. Parvis eventually comes from America and explains the fate of Robert Elwell, whose losses in the Blue Star mine dispute had driven him to attempt suicide. Elwell died after briefly rallying, at about the time Ned disappeared. When Mary is shown Elwell's likeness, she recognizes him as the subdued stranger she saw enter Lyng. She finally understands Alida Stair's warning: the house's ghost does not announce itself as supernatural, and recognition comes only afterward. Elwell's apparition came for Ned, who left with him and never returned. The haunting Mary once desired has already happened, but its meaning becomes clear only after it has taken her husband from her.