The Woman in White | by Wilkie Collins

A scheming nobleman, a beautiful heiress, and, of course, a mysterious woman in white confined to an asylum for the insane are just a few of the unforgettable characters in this marvelous tale of mistaken identities, locked rooms, and surprise revelations. Widely regarded as the finest work of Wilkie Collins.

Title	The Woman in White
Author	Wilkie Collins
Publisher	Chatto & Windus
Year	1896
Copyright	1896, Chatto & Windus
Amazon	The Woman in White

The Story Begun By Walter Hartright: (of Clement's Inn, Teacher of Drawing) This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve. If the machinery of the Law could be depended on to fathom e...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. II: It was the last day of July. The long hot summer was drawing to a close; and we, the weary pilgrims of the London pavement, were beginning to think of the cloud-shadows on the corn-fields, and the au...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. III: Pesca's face and manner, on the evening when we confronted each other at my mother's gate, were more than sufficient to inform me that something extraordinary had happened. It was quite useless, howe...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. III. Part 2: We declared that we were deeply interested. The Professor went on: In his hand, the golden Papa has a letter; and after he has made his excuse for disturbing us in our Infernal Region with the comm...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. III. Part 3: Secondly, That the duties which the master was expected to perform would be of a twofold kind. He was to superintend the instruction of two young ladies in the art of painting in water-colours; and h...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. IV: The heat had been painfully oppressive all day, and it was now a close and sultry night. My mother and sister had spoken so many last words, and had begged me to wait another five minutes so many tim...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. IV. Part 2: I heard you coming, she said, and hid there to see what sort of man you were, before I risked speaking. I doubted and feared about it till you passed; and then I was obliged to steal after you, an...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. IV. Part 3: We moved forward again at a quick pace; and for half an hour, at least, not a word passed on either side. From time to time, being forbidden to make any more inquiries, I stole a look at her face. It...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. V: She has escaped from my Asylum! I cannot say with truth that the terrible inference which those words suggested flashed upon me like a new revelation. Some of the strange questions put to me by th...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. VI: When I rose the next morning and drew up my blind, the sea opened before me joyously under the broad August sunlight, and the distant coast of Scotland fringed the horizon with its lines of melting bl...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. VI. Continued: She handed me my cup of tea, laughing gaily. Her light flow of talk, and her lively familiarity of manner with a total stranger, were accompanied by an unaffected naturalness and an easy inborn confi...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. VII: My conductor led me upstairs into a passage which took us back to the bedchamber in which I had slept during the past night; and opening the door next to it, begged me to look in. I have my master's...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. VII. Continued: I have just come from seeing the room, Mr. Fairlie; and I assure you---- He stopped me in the middle of the sentence, by closing his eyes, and holding up one of his white hands imploringly. I paus...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. VIII: When I entered the room, I found Miss Halcombe and an elderly lady seated at the luncheon-table. The elderly lady, when I was presented to her, proved to be Miss Fairlie's former governess, Mrs. Vese...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. VIII. Part 2: How can I describe her? How can I separate her from my own sensations, and from all that has happened in the later time? How can I see her again as she looked when my eyes first rested on her--as she ...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. VIII. Part 3: Look there, Mr. Hartright, she said, pointing to the sketch-book on the table, and to the little delicate wandering hand that was still trifling with it. Surely you will acknowledge that your mode...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. VIII. Part 4: On our way back I had let the ladies settle for themselves the first point of view which they were to sketch, under my instructions, on the afternoon of the next day. When they withdrew to dress for ...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. VIII. Part 5: Mr. Hartright, she said, will you come here for a minute? I want to speak to you. I entered the room again immediately. The piano stood about half- way down along the inner wall. On the side of...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. IX: So ended my eventful first day at Limmeridge House. Miss Halcombe and I kept our secret. After the discovery of the likeness no fresh light seemed destined to break over the mystery of the woman in ...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. IX. Continued: The days passed, the weeks passed; it was approaching the third month of my stay in Cumberland. The delicious monotony of life in our calm seclusion flowed on with me, like a smooth stream with a swi...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. X: It was on a Thursday in the week, and nearly at the end of the third month of my sojourn in Cumberland. In the morning, when I went down into the breakfast-room at the usual hour, Miss Halcombe, for ...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. X. Part 2: As your friend, she proceeded, I am going to tell you, at once, in my own plain, blunt, downright language, that I have discovered your secret--without help or hint, mind, from any one else. Mr. H...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. X. Part 3: Again the chance reference to the woman in white! Was there no possibility of speaking of Miss Fairlie and of me without raising the memory of Anne Catherick, and setting her between us like a fatalit...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XI: Not a word more was said, on either side, as we walked back to the house. Miss Halcombe hastened immediately to her sister's room, and I withdrew to my studio to set in order all of Mr. Fairlie's dra...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XI. Continued: I looked along the two rays of light, and I saw down into his inmost heart. It was black as night, and on it were written, in the red flaming letters which are the handwriting of the fallen angel, '...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XII: Our inquiries at Limmeridge were patiently pursued in all directions, and among all sorts and conditions of people. But nothing came of them. Three of the villagers did certainly assure us that they...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XII. Part 2: Upon my word, Mr. Dempster, you pay my feelings a great compliment in thinking them weak enough to be shocked by such an urchin as that! She turned with an air of satirical defiance to little Jacob,...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XII. Part 3: I need go no farther with you, said Miss Halcombe, pointing to the grave. You will let me know if you find anything to confirm the idea you have just mentioned to me. Let us meet again at the hou...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XIII: The exposed situation of the churchyard had obliged me to be cautious in choosing the position that I was to occupy. The main entrance to the church was on the side next to the burial-ground, and the...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XIII. Part 2: You remember me? I said. We met very late, and I helped you to find the way to London. Surely you have not forgotten that? Her features relaxed, and she drew a heavy breath of relief. I saw th...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XIII. Part 3: Should you wonder very much, I said, preparing the way as cautiously as I could for the questions that were to come, if I owned that it is a satisfaction to me, as well as a surprise, to see you he...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XIII. Part 4: I don't understand you, she said, after evidently trying hard, and trying in vain, to discover the meaning of the words I had last said to her. Never mind, I answered. Let us go on with what we...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XIII. Part 5: Talk of something else, she said, whispering through her teeth. I shall lose myself if you talk of that. Every vestige of the gentler thoughts which had filled her mind hardly a minute since seem...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XIV: Half an hour later I was back at the house, and was informing Miss Halcombe of all that had happened. She listened to me from beginning to end with a steady, silent attention, which, in a woman of he...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XIV. Continued: Mr. Fairlie's compliments to Mr. Hartright. Mr. Fairlie is more surprised and disappointed than he can say (in the present state of his health) by Mr. Hartright's application. Mr. Fairlie is not a ...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XV: As we walked round to the front of the house a fly from the railway approached us along the drive. Miss Halcombe waited on the door-steps until the fly drew up, and then advanced to shake hands with ...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XV. Part 2: You are the very person I wanted to see, said the old gentleman. I had two words to say to you, my dear sir; and If you have no objection I will avail myself of the present opportunity. To put it ...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XV. Part 3: We got through the dinner, to all outward appearance at least, happily enough. When the ladies had risen from table, and Mr. Gilmore and I were left alone in the dining-room, a new interest presented...

Walter Hartright's Story Begun. XV. Part 4: Mrs. Vesey was the nearest to the door, and the first to shake hands with me. I shall not see you again, Mr. Hartright, said the old lady. I am truly sorry you are going away. You have been very...

The Story Continued By Vincent Gilmore. I: (of Chancery Lane, Solicitor) I write these lines at the request of my friend, Mr. Walter Hartright. They are intended to convey a description of certain events which seriously affected Miss Fairlie...

The Story Continued By Vincent Gilmore. I. Part 2: On Monday Sir Percival Glyde arrived. I found him to be a most prepossessing man, so far as manners and appearance were concerned. He looked rather older than I had expected, his head being bald ove...

The Story Continued By Vincent Gilmore. I. Part 3: If my plain statement of facts had only been addressed to Mr. Gilmore, he said, I should consider any further reference to this unhappy matter as unnecessary. I may fairly expect Mr. Gilmore, as a...

Vincent Gilmore's Story. II: We all met again at dinner-time. Sir Percival was in such boisterous high spirits that I hardly recognised him as the same man whose quiet tact, refinement, and good sense had impressed me so strongl...

Vincent Gilmore's Story. II. Part 2: I own that I was a little shocked at this view of the case. Surely, I said, you don't mean to infer that when Sir Percival spoke to you yesterday he speculated on such a result as you have just me...

Vincent Gilmore's Story. II. Part 3: One of the errands, my dear, which brings me here is to bid you good-bye, I began. I must get back to London to-day: and, before I leave, I want to have a word with you on the subject of your own ...

Vincent Gilmore's Story. III: A week passed, after my return to London, without the receipt of any communication from Miss Halcombe. On the eighth day a letter in her handwriting was placed among the other letters on my table. I...

Vincent Gilmore's Story. III. Part 2: Mr. Philip Fairlie had lived on excellent terms with his sister Eleanor, as long as she remained a single woman. But when her marriage took place, somewhat late in life, and when that marriage united...

Vincent Gilmore's Story. III. Part 3: Mr. Fairlie's answer reached me by return of post, and proved to be wandering and irrelevant in the extreme. Turned into plain English, it practically expressed itself to this effect: Would dear Gil...

Vincent Gilmore's Story. IV: Leaving by an early train, I got to Limmeridge in time for dinner. The house was oppressively empty and dull. I had expected that good Mrs. Vesey would have been company for me in the absence of the ...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe: (in Extracts from her Diary) LIMMERIDGE HOUSE, Nov. 8.[1] [1] The passages omitted, here and elsewhere, in Miss Halcombe's Diary are only those which bear no reference to Miss Fa...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. Part 2: She sighed, and put her head back in its old position on my bosom. Sad misgivings about what the end would be weighed upon my mind, but still distrusting myself, I told her that I would do as she wish...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. Part 3: I have heard from Marian, she went on, that I have only to claim my release from our engagement to obtain that release from you. It was forbearing and generous on your part, Sir Percival, to send ...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. Part 4: Both those trusts are sacred to me, he said, and both shall be sacredly kept. After answering in those terms he paused, and looked at her as if he was waiting to hear more. I have said all I wi...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. Part 5: 10th.--Finding that she was composed and like herself this morning, I returned to the painful subject of yesterday, for the sole purpose of imploring her to let me speak to Sir Percival and Mr. Fairli...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. Part 6: My uncle is right, she said. I have caused trouble and anxiety enough to you, and to all about me. Let me cause no more, Marian-- let Sir Percival decide. I remonstrated warmly, but nothing tha...

Marian Halcombe's Story. II (First Epoch): Limmeridge House November 27th.--My forebodings are realised. The marriage is fixed for the twenty-second of December. The day after we left for Polesdean Lodge Sir Percival wrote, it seems, to Mr....

Marian Halcombe's Story. II (First Epoch). Part 2: Suppose I do mean to write to him again, I said at last. What then, Laura? Her cheek grew burning hot against my neck, and her arms trembled and tightened round me. Don't tell him about THE TW...

Marian Halcombe's Story. II (First Epoch). Part 3: It is strange to look back at this latest entry in my journal, and to find that I am writing of the marriage and the parting with Laura, as people write of a settled thing. It seems so cold and so un...

Marian Halcombe's Story. II (First Epoch). Part 4: This sad change in her only increases her attractions for Sir Percival. He interprets it, I can see, to his own advantage. There is a feverish flush in her cheeks, a feverish brightness in her eyes, ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. II (First Epoch). Part 5: I am becoming anxious to know the Count. He is the most intimate friend of Laura's husband, and in that capacity he excites my strongest interest. Neither Laura nor I have ever seen him. All I know...

The Second Epoch. The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. I: Blackwater Park, Hampshire June 11th, 1850.--Six months to look back on--six long, lonely months since Laura and I last saw each other! How many days have I still to wait? Only one! To-morrow, the t...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. I. Part 2: Poor Mrs. Vesey travelled with me as far as London. It was impossible to abandon her to solitude at Limmeridge after Laura and I had both left the house, and we have arranged that she is to live with...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. I. Part 3: This, to my mind, looks ill for the Count. Laura has preserved, far more perfectly than most people do in later life, the child's subtle faculty of knowing a friend by instinct, and if I am right in ...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. I. Part 4: A pretty winding path, artificially made, led me on among the trees, and my north-country experience soon informed me that I was approaching sandy, heathy ground. After a walk of more than half a mil...

The Story Continued By Marian Halcombe. I. Part 5: Why, Lord bless me, cried the housekeeper, that must be Mrs. Catherick's dog! Whose? I asked, in the utmost astonishment. Mrs. Catherick's. You seem to know Mrs. Catherick, Miss Halcombe? ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. II: June 15th.--The confusion of their arrival has had time to subside. Two days have elapsed since the return of the travellers, and that interval has sufficed to put the new machinery of our lives at B...

Marian Halcombe's Story. II. Part 2: She should not have asked those questions. She should have remembered her own resolution, on the morning when Sir Percival held her to her marriage engagement, and when she resigned the book of Hartr...

Marian Halcombe's Story. II. Part 3: The two guests--the Count and Countess Fosco--come next in my catalogue. I will dispose of the Countess first, so as to have done with the woman as soon as possible. Laura was certainly not chargeab...

Marian Halcombe's Story. II. Part 4: Is it his face that has recommended him? It may be his face. He is a most remarkable likeness, on a large scale, of the great Napoleon. His features have Napoleon's magnificent regularity--his expr...

Marian Halcombe's Story. II. Part 5: Mind that dog, sir, said the groom; he flies at everybody! He does that, my friend, replied the Count quietly, because everybody is afraid of him. Let us see if he flies at me. And he laid hi...

Marian Halcombe's Story. III: June 16th.--I have a few lines more to add to this day's entry before I go to bed to-night. About two hours after Sir Percival rose from the luncheon-table to receive his solicitor, Mr. Merriman, in ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. III. Part 2: What makes you think that? she asked. How should he have known, otherwise, that Mr. Merriman was Sir Percival's solicitor? I rejoined. Besides, when I followed you out of the luncheon-room, he ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. III. Part 3: The morning was windy and cloudy, and the rapid alternations of shadow and sunlight over the waste of the lake made the view look doubly wild, weird, and gloomy. Some people call that picturesque, ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. III. Part 4: Devilish true, and very well put, cried a voice at the entrance of the boat-house. Sir Percival had recovered his equanimity, and had come back while we were listening to the Count. Some of it ma...

Marian Halcombe's Story. III. Part 5: He got up, put the cage on the table, and paused for a moment to count the mice in it. One, two, three, four----Ha! he cried, with a look of horror, where, in the name of Heaven, is the fifth--the...

Marian Halcombe's Story. III. Part 6: The effect of my information on him was, in one respect, curious enough. Intimately as he knows Sir Percival, and closely as he appears to be associated with Sir Percival's private affairs in general...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IV: June 17th.--Just as my hand was on the door of my room, I heard Sir Percival's voice calling to me from below. I must beg you to come downstairs again, he said. It is Fosco's fault, Miss Halcombe...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IV. Part 2: I ought surely to know what I am signing, Sir Percival, before I write my name? Nonsense! What have women to do with business? I tell you again, you can't understand it. At any rate, let me try...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IV. Part 3: This strong expression of the most open and the most bitter contempt was so entirely unlike herself, so utterly out of her character, that it silenced us all. There was something hidden, beyond a dou...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IV. Part 4: I wonder if the housekeeper knows? she persisted. Certainly not, I replied. She must be quite as ignorant as we are. Laura shook her head doubtfully. Did you not hear from the housekeeper t...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IV. Part 5: Just as I was about to put the address on the envelope an obstacle was discovered by Laura, which in the effort and preoccupation of writing had escaped my mind altogether. How are we to get the ans...

Marian Halcombe's Story. V: June 17th.--When the dinner hour brought us together again, Count Fosco was in his usual excellent spirits. He exerted himself to interest and amuse us, as if he was determined to efface from our mem...

Marian Halcombe's Story. V. Part 2: I was obliged to turn my face from her. Don't ask me! I said. Have I suffered as you have suffered? What right have I to decide? I used to think of him, she pursued, dropping her voice and mov...

Marian Halcombe's Story. V. Part 3: It is late, I heard her whisper. It will be dark in the plantation. She shook my arm and repeated, Marian! it will be dark in the plantation. Give me a minute longer, I said--a minute, to g...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VI: June 18th.--The misery of self-reproach which I suffered yesterday evening, on hearing what Laura told me in the boat-house, returned in the loneliness of the night, and kept me waking and wretched fo...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VI. Part 2: Under these serious circumstances, I would recommend Lady Glyde to assign as a reason for withholding her signature, that she wishes the deed to be first submitted to myself, as her family solicitor ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VI. Part 3: I walked about the house, from room to room, with the lawyer's letter in my bosom (I was afraid by this time even to trust it under lock and key), till the oppression of my suspense half maddened me. ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VI. Part 4: She had dropped on her knees by the side of the sofa. Her face was flushed and agitated, and her eyes met mine in a wild bewildered manner. I started the instant I saw her. What has happened? I a...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VI. Part 5: Did you remember her, Laura, when she told you her name? Yes, I remembered your asking me about Anne Catherick at Limmeridge, and your saying that she had once been considered like me. What rem...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VI. Part 6: Yes! yes! Go on. What did she tell you about your husband? She stopped again, Marian, at that point---- And said no more? And listened eagerly. 'Hush!' she whispered, still waving her hand...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VI. Part 7: For a long walk! They had never yet been in each other's company with that object in my experience of them. Sir Percival cared for no exercise but riding, and the Count (except when he was polite eno...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VI. Part 8: Surely you like this modest, trembling English twilight? he said softly. Ah! I love it. I feel my inborn admiration of all that is noble, and great, and good, purified by the breath of heaven on ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VII: June 19th.--The events of yesterday warned me to be ready, sooner or later, to meet the worst. To-day is not yet at an end, and the worst has come. Judging by the closest calculation of time that Lau...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VII. Part 2: Do you know, I asked, whether Lady Glyde has come in from her walk or not? My lady came in a little while ago with Sir Percival, answered the housekeeper. I am afraid, Miss Halcombe, somethin...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VII. Part 3: She is sublime! he said to himself. He approached her while he spoke, and drew her hand through his arm. I am at your service, Eleanor, he went on, with a quiet dignity that I had never noticed ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VII. Part 4: Yes? Yes? I went in and sat waiting for a few minutes. But my restlessness made me get up again, to walk about a little. As I passed out I saw some marks on the sand, close under the front of th...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VII. Part 5: I do understand it, Laura. He is mad--mad with the terrors of a guilty conscience. Every word you have said makes me positively certain that when Anne Catherick left you yesterday you were on the e...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VIII: June 19th.--I had only got as far as the top of the stairs when the locking of Laura's door suggested to me the precaution of also locking my own door, and keeping the key safely about me while I was ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VIII. Part 2: Count! she said. Your foreign forms of politeness are not understood by Englishwomen. Pardon me, my angel! The best and dearest Englishwoman in the world understands them. With those words he ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VIII. Part 3: It was no time then to inquire into his motives. I looked about for Madame Fosco next, and found her following her favourite circle round and round the fish-pond. I was a little doubtful how she wou...

Marian Halcombe's Story. VIII. Part 4: He had not found Anne! We were safe for that night--he had not found her yet. You are going downstairs, Marian? Come up again in the evening. Yes, yes. Don't be uneasy if I am a little late--I m...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IX: June 19th.--Once safely shut into my own room, I opened these pages, and prepared to go on with that part of the day's record which was still left to write. For ten minutes or more I sat idle, with t...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IX. Part 2: The plan which had now occurred to me was to get out at my sitting-room window on to this roof, to creep along noiselessly till I reached that part of it which was immediately over the library window,...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IX. Part 3: Meanwhile, Sir Percival and the Count began talking together below, now and then dropping their voices a little lower than usual, but never sinking them to a whisper. The strangeness and peril of my ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IX. Part 4: There was a pause. I write the villain's words about myself because I mean to remember them--because I hope yet for the day when I may speak out once for all in his presence, and cast them back one b...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IX. Part 5: Your flesh? Does flesh mean conscience in English? I speak of your wife's death as I speak of a possibility. Why not? The respectable lawyers who scribble-scrabble your deeds and your wills look the...

Marian Halcombe's Story. IX. Part 6: No, she was the best-behaved patient they had--and, like fools, they trusted her. She's just mad enough to be shut up, and just sane enough to ruin me when she's at large--if you understand that? ...

Marian Halcombe's Story. X: June 20th.--Eight o'clock. The sun is shining in a clear sky. I have not been near my bed--I have not once closed my weary wakeful eyes. From the same window at which I looked out into the darkness...

Postscript By A Sincere Friend: The illness of our excellent Miss Halcombe has afforded me the opportunity of enjoying an unexpected intellectual pleasure. I refer to the perusal (which I have just completed) of this interesting Di...

The Story Continued By Frederick Fairlie, Esq., Of Limmeridge House: [2] The manner in which Mr. Fairlie's Narrative and other Narratives that are shortly to follow it, were originally obtained, forms the subject of an explanation which will appear at a later period. ...

The Story Continued By Frederick Fairlie. Part 2: Endeavour to ascertain what she means. Louis endeavoured, and the Young Person endeavoured. They succeeded in confusing each other to such an extent that I am bound in common gratitude to say, they...

The Story Continued By Frederick Fairlie. Part 3: It is unnecessary to say that my interference enabled me, in due course of time, to ascertain the purport of the Young Person's remarks. I discovered that she was uneasy in her mind, because the trai...

The Story Continued By Frederick Fairlie. Part 4: When I am totally prostrated (did I mention that I was totally prostrated by Marian's letter?) it always takes me three days to get up again. I was very unreasonable--I expected three days of quiet. ...

The Story Continued By Frederick Fairlie. Part 5: I thought this very convincing and attentive. He had taken me in up to that point about the light, he had certainly taken me in. You see me confused, he said, returning to his place--on my word o...

The Story Continued By Frederick Fairlie. Part 6: Cool. Here was a matrimonial hailstorm pouring in the South of England, and I was invited, by a man with fever in every fold of his coat, to come out from the North of England and take my share of th...

The Story Continued By Frederick Fairlie. Part 7: He waved his horrid hand at me--he struck his infectious breast-- he addressed me oratorically, as if I was laid up in the House of Commons. It was high time to take a desperate course of some sort. ...

The Story Continued By Eliza Michelson. I: (Housekeeper at Blackwater Park) I am asked to state plainly what I know of the progress of Miss Halcombe's illness and of the circumstances under which Lady Glyde left Blackwater Park for London. T...

The Story Continued By Eliza Michelson. I. Part 2: There was no improvement in Miss Halcombe, and the second night was even worse than the first. Mr. Dawson was constant in his attendance. The practical duties of nursing were still divided between th...

The Story Continued By Eliza Michelson. I. Part 3: Buffeted in this inexcusably uncivil way on one cheek, the Count, like a practical Christian, immediately turned the other, and said, in the sweetest manner, Good-morning, Mr. Dawson. If my late be...

The Story Continued By Eliza Michelson. I. Part 4: We found Mrs. Rubelle still enjoying herself at the window. When I introduced her to Mr. Dawson, neither the doctor's doubtful looks nor the doctor's searching questions appeared to confuse her in th...

The Story Continued By Eliza Michelson. I. Part 5: In the course of the next few days Miss Halcombe did certainly seem to all of us to be mending a little. Our faith in Mr. Dawson revived. He appeared to be very confident about the case, and he assu...

The Story Continued By Eliza Michelson. I. Part 6: She struggled for a moment, then suddenly dropped her arms and sank forward. She had fainted. The Countess and I took her from the doctor and carried her into her own room. The Count preceded us, a...

The Story Continued By Eliza Michelson. I. Part 7: We were now, therefore, left without the attendance of a medical man. Although there was no actual necessity for another doctor-- nursing and watching being, as the physician had observed, all that M...

Eliza Michelson's Story. II: The next event that occurred was of so singular a nature that it might have caused me a feeling of superstitious surprise, if my mind had not been fortified by principle against any pagan weakness of ...

Eliza Michelson's Story. II. Part 2: The Count and Countess Fosco had left Blackwater Park for their new residence in St. John's Wood. I was not made aware of the motive for this sudden departure--I was only told that the Count had been...

Eliza Michelson's Story. II. Part 3: She would have bid you good-bye this time, returned Sir Percival, if she had not been afraid of herself and of you. She knew you would try to stop her, she knew you would distress her by crying. ...

Eliza Michelson's Story. II. Part 4: Drop it! said Sir Percival, rudely turning his back on us. If you haven't sense enough to know what is best for yourself other people must know it foe you. The arrangement is made and there is an...

Eliza Michelson's Story. II. Part 5: The next day was fine and sunny. Sir Percival came up, after breakfast, to tell us that the chaise would be at the door at a quarter to twelve--the train to London stopping at our station at twenty m...

Eliza Michelson's Story. II. Part 6: As I approached she heard me, and turned round. My blood curdled in my veins. The strange woman in the garden was Mrs. Rubelle! I could neither move nor speak. She came up to me, as composedly as ...

Eliza Michelson's Story. II. Part 7: While I am in your service, Sir Percival, I said, I hope I know my duty well enough not to inquire into your motives. When I am out of your service, I hope I know my own place well enough not to s...

Eliza Michelson's Story. II. Part 8: He came punctually, and I found cause to be thankful that I had adopted the precaution of calling him in. Before midnight Sir Percival's strange temper broke out in the most violent and most alarming...

The Story Continued In Several Narratives. 1. The Narrative Of Hester Pinhorn, Cook In The Service Of Count Fosco: [Taken down from her own statement] I am sorry to say that I have never learnt to read or write. I have been a hard-working woman all my life, and have kept a good character. I know that it is a si...

The Narrative Of Hester Pinhorn, Cook In The Service Of Count Fosco. Continued: Later on the same morning, when she woke, the lady took a sudden turn, and got seemingly a great deal better. I was not let in again to see her, no more was the housemaid, for the reason that she was...

2. The Narrative Of The Doctor: To the Registrar of the Sub-District in which the undermentioned death took place.--I hereby certify that I attended Lady Glyde, aged Twenty-One last Birthday; that I last saw her on Thursday the 25th...

3. The Narrative Of Jane Gould: I was the person sent in by Mr. Goodricke to do what was right and needful by the remains of a lady who had died at the house named in the certificate which precedes this. I found the body in charge ...

4. The Narrative Of The Tombstone: Sacred to the Memory of Laura, Lady Glyde, wife of Sir Percival Glyde, Bart., of Blackwater Park, Hampshire, and daughter of the late Philip Fairlie, Esq., of Limmeridge House, in this parish. Born Ma...

5. The Narrative Of Walter Hartright: Early in the summer of 1850 I and my surviving companions left the wilds and forests of Central America for home. Arrived at the coast, we took ship there for England. The vessel was wrecked in the ...

The Third Epoch. The Story Continued By Walter Hartright. I: I open a new page. I advance my narrative by one week. The history of the interval which I thus pass over must remain unrecorded. My heart turns faint, my mind sinks in darkness and confusion when ...

Walter Hartright's Story. II: My position is defined--my motives are acknowledged. The story of Marian and the story of Laura must come next. I shall relate both narratives, not in the words (often interrupted, often inevitably ...

Walter Hartright's Story. II. Part 2: The postscript, expressed in these terms, was shown to Miss Halcombe when she arrived at Limmeridge. There were also placed in her possession the clothes Lady Glyde had worn, and the other effects sh...

Walter Hartright's Story. II. Part 3: It cannot be said that this conversation led to the result of even partially preparing Miss Halcombe's mind for what was to come. But it produced, nevertheless, a very serious effect upon her. She was...

Walter Hartright's Story. II. Part 4: The nurse hesitated, through sheer incredulity and surprise. Miss Halcombe pressed the point on her firmly. You will be doing a good action, she repeated; you will be helping the most injured and...

Walter Hartright's Story. II. Part 5: After this singular introduction--in the course of which no names, to the best of Lady Glyde's recollection, had been mentioned--she was left alone with the stranger. He was perfectly civil, but he s...

Walter Hartright's Story. II. Part 6: Miss Halcombe left the room--waited till the first heat of her indignation had passed away--decided on reflection that Mr. Fairlie should see his niece in the interests of common humanity before he cl...

Walter Hartright's Story. III: This was the story of the past--the story so far as we knew it then. Two obvious conclusions presented themselves to my mind after hearing it. In the first place, I saw darkly what the nature of the...

Walter Hartright's Story. III. Part 2: I gave up all hope of appealing to my recognition of Laura, or to Marian's recognition of her, in proof of her identity. If we had loved her less dearly, if the instinct implanted in us by that love ...

Walter Hartright's Story. III. Part 3: Mrs. Vesey's answer to my inquiries only confirmed the apprehensions which I had previously felt. Laura had certainly written to say she would pass the night under the roof of her old friend--but she...

Walter Hartright's Story. IV: No circumstance of the slightest importance happened on my way to the offices of Messrs. Gilmore & Kyrle, in Chancery Lane. While my card was being taken in to Mr. Kyrle, a consideration occurred to...

Walter Hartright's Story. IV. Part 2: I was obliged to wait and collect myself before I could answer him. It was the first time the story of Laura and the story of Marian had been presented to me from a stranger's point of view-- the fir...

Walter Hartright's Story. IV. Part 3: He drew back towards his table, and said nothing. His face showed plainly that he thought my delusion had got the better of my reason, and that he considered it totally useless to give me any more ad...

Walter Hartright's Story. IV. Part 4: One last word of affectionate warning, of paternal caution, and I tear myself from the charm of addressing you--I close these fervent lines. Advance no farther than you have gone already, compromis...

Walter Hartright's Story. V: The story of my first inquiries in Hampshire is soon told. My early departure from London enabled me to reach Mr. Dawson's house in the forenoon. Our interview, so far as the object of my visit was ...

Walter Hartright's Story. V. Continued: I was prepared to be watched on the way from Blackwater Park to the station, exactly as I had been watched in London the day before. But I could not discover at the time, whether I was really followe...

Walter Hartright's Story. VI: The address communicated by Mrs. Todd took me to a lodging-house situated in a respectable street near the Gray's Inn Road. When I knocked the door was opened by Mrs. Clements herself. She did not a...

Walter Hartright's Story. VI. Continued: For the few days during which they were at Sandon without being discovered they had lived a little away from the village, in the cottage of a decent widow-woman who had a bedroom to let, and whose dis...

Walter Hartright's Story. VII: Thus far the information which I had received from Mrs. Clements-- though it established facts of which I had not previously been aware--was of a preliminary character only. It was clear that the ser...

Walter Hartright's Story. VII. Part 2: Yes, sir. A gentleman born and brought up, who ought to have set a better example. You know him, sir--and my poor dear Anne knew him only too well. Sir Percival Glyde? Yes, Sir Percival Glyde...

Walter Hartright's Story. VII. Part 3: She did, sir. She was hard enough and heartless enough to set the opinions of all her neighbours at flat defiance. She declared to everybody, from the clergyman downwards, that she was the victim o...

Walter Hartright's Story. VII. Part 4: I suppose you often saw Sir Percival when he was in your village? I said. Yes, sir, very often, replied Mrs. Clements. Did you ever observe that Anne was like him? She was not at all like hi...

Walter Hartright's Story. VIII: When I reached home again after my interview with Mrs. Clements, I was struck by the appearance of a change in Laura. The unvarying gentleness and patience which long misfortune had tried so cruelly ...

Walter Hartright's Story. VIII. Part 2: He will not be more than your match, she replied decidedly, because he will not be helped in resisting you by the impenetrable wickedness of the Count. What has led you to that conclusion? I re...

Walter Hartright's Story. VIII. Part 3: I walked at once to the door of Number Thirteen--the number of Mrs. Catherick's house--and knocked, without waiting to consider beforehand how I might best present myself when I got in. The first nec...

Walter Hartright's Story. VIII. Part 4: You may ask, then, I persisted, why I mention the matter in your presence. Yes, I DO ask that. I mention it because I am determined to bring Sir Percival Glyde to account for the wickedness h...

Walter Hartright's Story. VIII. Part 5: You won't trust me? I said. No. You are afraid? Do I look as if I was? You are afraid of Sir Percival Glyde? Am I? Her colour was rising, and her hands were at work again smoothing h...

Walter Hartright's Story. IX: I Left the house, feeling that Mrs. Catherick had helped me a step forward, in spite of herself. Before I had reached the turning which led out of the square, my attention was suddenly aroused by the...

Walter Hartright's Story. IX. Part 2: The next consideration to be disposed of led me a step farther from this point. Mrs. Catherick's undisguised contempt for Sir Percival plainly extended to his mother as well. She had referred with t...

Walter Hartright's Story. IX. Part 3: The vestry door was of stout old oak, studded with strong nails, and the clerk put his large heavy key into the lock with the air of a man who knew that he had a difficulty to encounter, and who was n...

Walter Hartright's Story. IX. Part 4: Well, now, that's curious! said the clerk, shutting up the book again, just after he had opened it, and smacking his hand cheerfully on the cover. Those were the very words my old master was alway...

Walter Hartright's Story. X: Once out of sight of the church, I pressed forward briskly on my way to Knowlesbury. The road was, for the most part, straight and level. Whenever I looked back over it I saw the two spies steadily ...

Walter Hartright's Story. X. Part 2: I obtained permission to hire a messenger to drive away at once with my letter in a conveyance which might be used to bring the doctor back immediately. Oak Lodge was on the Knowlesbury side of Black...

Walter Hartright's Story. X. Part 3: My head turned giddy--I held by the desk to keep myself from falling. Of all the suspicions which had struck me in relation to that desperate man, not one had been near the truth. The idea that he w...

Walter Hartright's Story. X. Part 4: It was impossible to venture back to the road, but I was determined nevertheless to get to Old Welmingham that evening. Neither moon nor stars appeared to guide me. I only knew that I had kept the w...

Walter Hartright's Story. X. Part 5: The servant who had followed me staggered back shuddering, and dropped to his knees. Oh, my God! he said, it's Sir Percival! As the words passed his lips the clerk joined us, and at the same mom...

Walter Hartright's Story. X. Part 6: Where is he? whispered the servant, staring vacantly at the flames. He's dust and ashes, said the clerk. And the books are dust and ashes--and oh, sirs! the church will be dust and ashes soon....

Walter Hartright's Story. XI: The inquest was hurried for certain local reasons which weighed with the coroner and the town authorities. It was held on the afternoon of the next day. I was necessarily one among the witnesses sum...

Walter Hartright's Story. XI. Continued: On this supposition, it is easy to understand why he waited until nightfall before he made the attempt, and why he took advantage of the clerk's absence to possess himself of the keys. Necessity woul...

The Story Continued By Mrs. Catherick: SIR,--You have not come back, as you said you would. No matter--I know the news, and I write to tell you so. Did you see anything particular in my face when you left me? I was wondering, in my own m...

The Story Continued By Mrs. Catherick. Part 2: Old Welmingham suited his purpose as well as Knowlesbury. His father had removed his mother from Knowlesbury, and had lived with her at a cottage on the river, a little distance from our village. Peo...

The Story Continued By Mrs. Catherick. Part 3: I deserved some reward (he was kind enough to say) for the service I had done him, and some compensation (he was so obliging as to add) for what I had suffered. He was quite willing--generous scoundr...

The Story Continued By Mrs. Catherick. Part 4: The ruffianly side of him must have been uppermost, I suppose, when he got my letter, for he wrote back, refusing me in such abominably insolent language, that I lost all command over myself, and abus...

The Story Continued By Walter Hartright. I: My first impulse, after reading Mrs. Catherick's extraordinary narrative, was to destroy it. The hardened shameless depravity of the whole composition, from beginning to end--the atrocious perversity...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. II: It was between nine and ten o'clock before I reached Fulham, and found my way to Gower's Walk. Both Laura and Marian came to the door to let me in. I think we had hardly known how close the tie was ...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. II. Part 2: I recollect, Marian. Well, so it has really turned out. The Count offered his advice, but it was refused. Sir Percival would only take counsel of his own violence, his own obstinacy, and his own...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. II. Part 3: I answered her warmly and gratefully, as I really felt. But the anxious look still remained on her face while I was speaking, and the first question she asked, when I had done, related to Count Fosco...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. II. Part 4: The measure of precaution related, necessarily, to the Count. It was of the last importance to ascertain, if possible, whether his plans committed him to remaining in England--or, in other words, to ...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. III: Four months elapsed. April came--the month of spring--the month of change. The course of time had flowed through the interval since the winter peacefully and happily in our new home. I had turned m...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. III. Continued: I was guided by your advice in those past days, I said, and now, Marian, with reliance tenfold greater I will be guided by it again. She answered by pressing my hand. I saw that she was deeply t...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. IV: The course of this narrative, steadily flowing on, bears me away from the morning-time of our married life, and carries me forward to the end. In a fortnight more we three were back in London, and th...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. IV. Continued: The professor has been so long absent from these pages that he has run some risk of being forgotten altogether. It is the necessary law of such a story as mine that the persons concerned in it only a...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. V: The last notes of the introduction to the opera were being played, and the seats in the pit were all filled, when Pesca and I reached the theatre. There was plenty of room, however, in the passage th...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. V. Part 2: For my own part I was so startled by the change in the Count's face, so astounded at the entirely unexpected turn which events had taken, that I knew neither what to say or do next. Pesca roused me b...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. V. Part 3: He said a few words more, hesitatingly and disconnectedly, then stopped again. I saw that the effort of expressing himself in English, on an occasion too serious to permit him the use of the quaint t...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. VI: MY first conviction as soon as I found myself outside the house, was that no alternative was left me but to act at once on the information I had received--to make sure of the Count that night, or to r...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. VI. Continued: I left my room to go down to the ground floor of the house, and speak to the landlord about finding me a messenger. He happened to be ascending the stairs at the time, and we met on the landing. His ...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. VII: There was no lamp in the hall, but by the dim light of the kitchen candle, which the girl had brought upstairs with her, I saw an elderly lady steal noiselessly out of a back room on the ground floor....

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. VII. Part 2: Another man in his position would have needed some explanation of those words--the Count felt no such necessity. One reading of the note showed him the precaution that I had taken as plainly as if he...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. VII. Part 3: The extraordinary mixture of prompt decision, far-sighted cunning, and mountebank bravado in this speech, staggered me for a moment-- and only for a moment. The one question to consider was, whether ...

Walter Hartright's Story Continued. VII. Part 4: Done, Mr. Hartright! he announced with a self-renovating thump of his fist on his broad breast. Done, to my own profound satisfaction--to YOUR profound astonishment, when you read what I have writ...

The Story Continued By Isidor, Ottavio, Baldassare Fosco: (Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Brazen Crown, Perpetual Arch-Master of the Rosicrucian Masons of Mesopotamia; Attached (in Honorary Capacities) to Societies Mus...

The Count's Narrative: In the summer of eighteen hundred and fifty I arrived in England, charged with a delicate political mission from abroad. Confidential persons were semi-officially connected with me, whose exertions I ...

The Count's Narrative. Part 2: The best years of my life have been passed in the ardent study of medical and chemical science. Chemistry especially has always had irresistible attractions for me from the enormous, the illimitable ...

The Count's Narrative. Part 3: My own private familiarity with the nature of Marian's correspondence had previously informed me that she had written to Mr. Fairlie, proposing, as a relief to Lady Glyde's matrimonial embarrassments,...

The Count's Narrative. Part 4: I had arranged, at my last visit to the metropolis, to have our modest domestic establishment ready to receive us when we arrived in London by the early train. In consequence of this wise precaution,...

The Count's Narrative. Part 5: On the morning of the 26th Percival's letter reached me, announcing his wife's arrival by the midday train. Madame Rubelle also wrote to say she would follow in the evening. I started in the fly, le...

The Story Concluded By Walter Hartright. I: When I closed the last leaf of the Count's manuscript the half- hour during which I had engaged to remain at Forest Road had expired. Monsieur Rubelle looked at his watch and bowed. I rose immediate...

The Story Concluded By Walter Hartright. I. Continued: I cannot write at any length of our interview with Mr. Fairlie, for I cannot recall it to mind without feelings of impatience and contempt, which make the scene, even in remembrance only, utterly repu...

Walter Hartright's Story Concluded. II: Two more events remain to be added to the chain before it reaches fairly from the outset of the story to the close. While our new sense of freedom from the long oppression of the past was still stran...

Walter Hartright's Story Concluded. III: The summer and autumn passed after my return from Paris, and brought no changes with them which need be noticed here. We lived so simply and quietly that the income which I was now steadily earning s...

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