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"He took my hand and put it to his poisonous lips."
John McLenan
7 April 1860
11.2 cm high by 8.9 cm wide (4 ½ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted, p. 213.
Twentieth regular illustration for Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (1860).
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"He took my hand and put it to his poisonous lips." — staff artist John McLenan's twentieth regular composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 20, published on 7 April 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, "The Second Epoch; The Story continued by Marian Halcombe, Blackwater Park, Hampshire, July 5th," p. 213; p. 129 in the 1861 volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
“You are very kind,” I said, “you relieve me inexpressibly.”
I tried to continue, but his eyes were on me; his deadly smile that hides everything was set, hard, and unwavering on his broad, smooth face. My distrust of his unfathomable falseness, my sense of my own degradation in stooping to conciliate his wife and himself, so disturbed and confused me, that the next words failed on my lips, and I stood there in silence.
“I beg you on my knees to say no more, Miss Halcombe — I am truly shocked that you should have thought it necessary to say so much.” With that polite speech he took my hand — oh, how I despise myself! oh, how little comfort there is even in knowing that I submitted to it for Laura’s sake!—he took my hand and put it to his poisonous lips. Never did I know all my horror of him till then. That innocent familiarity turned my blood as if it had been the vilest insult that a man could offer me. Yet I hid my disgust from him — I tried to smile — I, who once mercilessly despised deceit in other women, was as false as the worst of them, as false as the Judas whose lips had touched my hand.
I could not have maintained my degrading self-control — it is all that redeems me in my own estimation to know that I could not—if he had still continued to keep his eyes on my face. His wife’s tigerish jealousy came to my rescue and forced his attention away from me the moment he possessed himself of my hand. Her cold blue eyes caught light, her dull white cheeks flushed into bright colour, she looked years younger than her age in an instant.
“Count!” she said. “Your foreign forms of politeness are not understood by Englishwomen.” ["The Second Epoch. The Story continued by Marian Halcombe," Blackwater Park, Hampshire, July 5th," p. 213; p. 128 in the 1861 volume.]
Not merely his spouse, but his clandestine agent, Madame Fosco looks on jealously as her husband attempts to ingratiate himself with Marion yet again. The scowl on Marian's face as well as the caption derived from her narrative suggests that his exaggerated gallantry leaves Marian unimpressed. Horror rises in her nostrils as his lips touch her skin, although she seems to feel that she has succeeded in hiding her disgust of Fosco's gesture, and of both Count and Countess who, she is now aware, are serving as the spies of Sir Percival Glyde.
After her discussion with Laura about Sir Percival's treatment of her at the boat-house, Marian is convinced that the Foscos have been acting as Glyde's agents. The footsteps in the sand near the boat-house are almost certainly Fosco's, and it is highly likely that he has communicated Anne Catherick's conversation about Sir Percival's guilty secret to Glyde himself. No wonder, then, that Marian abhors Fosco's excessive attentions and regards his wife (upper right) with suspicion, for the Countess has just confessed to Marian that she summarized for her husband a conversation between Laura and Marian that she had overheard.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1860.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vols. III-IV (16 November 1859 through 8 September 1860).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert. London: Minerva, 2006.
Peters, Catherine. "Chapter Twelve: The Woman in White (1859-1860)." The King of the Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. London: Minerva Press, 1992. Pp. 205-225.
Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. Pp. 44-46.
Created 15 July 2024