Vera's
interactions with Mr. Nuttel and her aunt, Mrs. Sappleton, show that Vera is an intelligent and
observant young woman with a strong imagination and an undetected malicious streak.
Vera enjoys deceiving people. For example, she takes spiteful pleasure in concocting a
false tale to frighten the boring Mr. Nuttel, who is suffering from a nervous disorder and is in
the country for a rest cure. She quickly ascertains that he knows nothing of the area or of her
aunt's family. She uses this information to concoct a particularly wicked story.
Using her sharp memory of exactly what her uncle and her aunt's two brothers are
wearing, she is able to convince Mr. Nutley that the figures he sees coming toward the open
window of the dining room are ghosts of dead people. This sends him fleeing from the
house.
When her aunt wonders why Mr. Nutley ran off so suddenly, the
imaginative Vera quickly concocts another story, telling her aunt that he has a fear of dogs,
saying that he developed it in India when he had to spend a night in a newly dug grave to escape
a pack of snarling and foaming strays.
Vera projects an innocence that
deceives people and prevents them from discovering her malicious intentions. People don't expect
her to have such a vivid imagination or such a capacity for spinning lies for no reason except
to amuse herself and to exert power over people.
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