Oscar WildeIt was midnight when the family decided to go to bed. They left the library and started to walk up the stairs together. Suddenly all the clocks in the house struck twelve and they heard a terrible noise. Thunder crashed outside the house and the Otises heard a dreadful cry. Strange music sounded inside the house and a door opened at the top of the stairs.
Virginia stood in the doorway. She looked down the stairs at them. Her face was very pale and she carried a small box in her hand.
'Where have you been?' Mr Otis asked angrily. 'Your mother has been very worried. You have frightened us all. You must never play a trick like this again.'
'Except on the ghost,' said the twins. 'You can play tricks on the ghost!'
'Father,' Virginia said quietly, 'I have been with the ghost. He is dead and now he can rest. He gave me this box of beautiful jewels before he died.'
She showed her father the small box. Inside was a necklace made of red stones.
'Where did you get this?' asked her father. 'Where have you been?'
Mr Otis forgot to be angry. He was so pleased to see that Virginia was safe.
'Come. I'll show you,' said Virginia.
She turned back to the door at the top of the stairs. All of the family followed her. Washington Otis carried a lighted candle.
Virginia led them along a secret corridor. They came to an old wooden door which was open. Beyond the door was a little room with a low ceiling. There was an iron ring in the wall and two chains. At the end of the chains was a body. Only bones remained. It was a skeleton.
'This is the body of Sir Simon de Canterville,' said Virginia. 'He murdered his wife in 1575. Then his wife's brothers shut him in this room. He was given no food. Sir Simon starved to death. His ghost was in this house for three hundred years. But now he has found peace.'
The Otis family looked around the little room and did not know what to say. Virginia knelt on the floor beside the skeleton and began to pray.
There was a funeral four nights later. The Otises buried the body of Sir Simon de Canterville in a grave among the trees.
The Otises, Mrs Umney the housekeeper, and all the servants from Canterville Chase stood near the grave. Behind them were people from the nearby village. Many people had come to the funeral.