'The Mysterious Lodger' is the last story in Ghost Stories and Mysteries [of J. Sheridan LeFanu], edited and introduced by E. F. Bleiler. According to the introduction, it was originally published anonymously in 'Dublin University Magazine' in 1850. The classic ghost-story writer M. R. James was the first to declare that it was LeFanu's work. After reading the collection, I agree with Mr. Bleiler that LeFanu didn't write it.

It's still a pretty good Victorian ghost story. The lodger and the cat he claims isn't there are definitely mysterious. I felt sorry for Richard, Gertrude, and their children, nine-year-old Fanny, and the son that they persist in calling 'the baby' though he is four years old.

The family needs a lodger because they have two years to pay back a loan that amounts to a bit more than half their annual income. The lodger offers half the amount of the loan for just six months. As the story unfolds, it's soon apparent that they would have been better off with their first applicant, even though the ailing clergyman offered a bit less than they wanted.

Gertrude would have gladly welcomed the clergyman because she's a devout Christian. Richard, on the other hand, is a self-proclaimed infidel. I admit that I hadn't known that one of the meanings of 'infidel' is 'atheist'. It's a cautionary tale that before she married him, Gertrude thought Richard's talk against religion was mere levity and that she could persuade him to be like herself.

While the bad things that happen to the little family could certainly have been written by LeFanu, I'd have expected a different ending from him.

This wouldn't be a bad episode for one of those shows about hauntings.

By the way, this story uses 'sate' for 'sat,' 'shew' for 'show,' and 'gay' in in its original sense of being happy. ( )