"Old Acquaintance" (1941)

It was nice to run across another story I like by John Collier, whose Fancies and Goodnights collection has been consistently disappointing for me since "Witch's Money." It's a good way to do a ghost story, placing it in the context of a loveless marriage that is finally ending after 20 years when the wife dies. A backstory comes swirling in about the friendship of the husband, wife, and a second man, Robert. They partied a lot, in the modern parlance. Their time was the Roaring '20s. The woman chose between them but came to regret her choice. Judging from the behavior we see of her husband it's not hard to understand why. She dies in their hotel room. He decides not to let anyone know until later. He is actually elated about the death and wants to hide it as an impropriety. He had nothing to do with her fatal illness. But he's happy it happened and she is finally gone. This all takes place in Paris—further artifact of the Jazz Age. Our guy goes to a modest café for a drink, where he is astonished to find his wife, "apparently in the best of health." She doesn't have much to say to him but she's pounding down drinks and seem equable enough. Then they run into Robert and it's like old times again. It's amazing and it barely makes sense, but they carouse the night away. The story was probably even more poignant in 1941, when Paris was occupied, but it's still pretty poignant even so. Then our guy passes out and does not wake until the next morning, when he is alone. His wife's body is gone from the hotel room. The concierge tells him his wife can't be dead because she saw her, adding (for a second time in the story), "but Madame was from Angers. You know the proverb." I wish I did! Internet searches just give me stuff about anger management. Anyway, our guy, still seemingly obtuse, seems to think Robert has something to do with this strange situation. He decides to report it to the police but on the way there he sees his wife and Robert again in a cab, "locked in each other's arms, scandalously drunk, and quite oblivious of his existence." He jumps in another cab and orders it to follow them. When his cab finally catches up to it it's just an elderly gentleman, "probably an ambassador," who gets out of the cab. Our guy soon learns that Robert died less than three months earlier. So that's that—they're ghosts now. I like the feeling of the reunion with Robert. Again, there is a lot of nostalgia and sense of lost opportunities that drive this story. I like the treatment of the husband too. He's a terrible person, revealed in a number of ways subtle and overt, but he seems to have little awareness himself of how awful he is.

John Collier, Fancies and Goodnights
Story not available online.