Virginia comes face-to-face with the ghost in Chapter Five when she returns from a ride on Brockley Meadows with the duke. Initially, Virginia's reaction is typical of anyone who sees a ghost for the time: she wants to "run away" and hide in her room. But this quickly changes, once she realises the extent of the ghost's sadness:
"His head was leaning on his hand, and his whole attitude was one of extreme depression."
To make the ghost feel better, she tells him that her brothers are about to return to school and that nobody will be around to "annoy" him.
As their conversation progresses, Virginia's reaction to the ghost changes once again. She grows angry, for instance, as she learns about the murder of his wife and as he expresses his contempt for her "horrid, rude, vulgar" and "dishonest" family.
Ultimately, Virginia is too kindhearted to bear a grudge towards the ghost and her anger melts away when he asks for her help to enter the Garden of Death.
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