Content Warning: This section mentions wartime violence, relationship abuse, sexuality, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and demon possession.

Bowen’s story can be read as a modern retelling of “The Daemon Lover,” an old folk ballad in which a woman’s first fiancé goes missing only to return as a spirit years after she has happily married another. The “Daemon Lover” is traditionally a story of the consequences of breaking a promise to be faithful regardless of circumstance, with the second marriage standing in for infidelity. In it, the betrothed always seeks revenge, and the story bears elements of horror, as in his return, he leads his beloved to hell.

Hints of the lover’s menacing presence appear early in Bowen’s story. The narration informs the reader that “no human eye watched Mrs. Drover’s return” (661). While this could refer to the cat in the street, it could also imply that there is a supernatural force—perhaps her fiancé’s ghost—lying in wait. Alternatively, the presence shadowing Mrs. Drover could be her fiancé in the flesh. The fiancé was reported missing, but no one ever confirmed his death, so it is possible that he survived World War I and has now returned to England for the woman he views as his possession; Mrs.