Ghosts, like ladies, never speak till spoke to.

Barham’s line is a comic epigram built on a social convention of “proper” feminine reserve: a lady, in polite society, is expected not to initiate conversation, but to respond when addressed. By yoking that rule to ghosts—figures traditionally imagined as silent presences until summoned or questioned—the quip satirizes both the etiquette itself and the melodramatic solemnity of ghost lore. The humor comes from treating the supernatural as if it obeyed drawing-room manners, suggesting that what people fear (or romanticize) is often governed by the same human scripts and expectations that structure everyday life.