'Mrs Zant and the Ghost'—a 'Little Novel' by Wilkie Collins.

Mr Rayburn, a widower, and his young daughter, Lucy, first meet Mrs Zant in Kensington Gardens. She is oblivious to their presence and appears to be in some sort of trance. When they next meet she astounds Rayburn with her explanation: she is convinced that a vision of her recently deceased husband had come to her with a warning...

'Little Novels' published in 1887 is a collection of fourteen short stories by Wilkie Collins. Revised by the author, these stories had appeared in various British and American periodicals over the previous 10 years, very often with different titles. They are stand-alone stories dealing with a variety of subjects: love, marriage, the supernatural, class, money, and murder; most of them contain a mystery or twist to the tale which is bound to delight fans of Collins' best-known novels, 'The Woman in White' and 'The Moonstone.'

'Mrs Zant and the Ghost' is the first story in the collection. It was originally published with the title, 'The Ghost's Touch' in the weekly publications, 'The Irish Fireside' and 'Harper's Weekly' in 1885.