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"He walked to the fire-place and warmed himself," etc., etc.
John McLenan
21 January 1859
11.3 cm high by 8.9 cm wide (4 ⅜ by 3 ½ inches), framed, p. 37.
Ninth regular illustration for Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (1860).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"He walked to the fire-place and warmed himself," etc., etc. — staff artist John McLenan's ninth composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 9, published on 21 January 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, close of Part Three: "The Story continued by Vincent Gilmore, of Chancery Lane, Solicitor," p. 37; Chapter III, p. 61 in the 1861 volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
I threw the letter away in disgust. Just as it had fluttered to the ground, there was a knock at my door, and Sir Percival’s solicitor, Mr. Merriman, was shown in. There are many varieties of sharp practitioners in this world, but I think the hardest of all to deal with are the men who overreach you under the disguise of inveterate good-humour. A fat, well fed, smiling, friendly man of business is of all parties to a bargain the most hopeless to deal with. Mr. Merriman was one of this class.
“And how is good Mr. Gilmore?” he began, all in a glow with the warmth of his own amiability. “Glad to see you, sir, in such excellent health. I was passing your door, and I thought I would look in in case you might have something to say to me. Do — now pray do let us settle this little difference of ours by word of mouth, if we can! Have you heard from your client yet?”
“Yes. Have you heard from yours?”
“My dear, good sir! I wish I had heard from him to any purpose — I wish, with all my heart, the responsibility was off my shoulders; but he is obstinate — or let me rather say, resolute — and he won’t take it off. ‘Merriman, I leave details to you. Do what you think right for my interests, and consider me as having personally withdrawn from the business until it is all over.’ Those were Sir Percival’s words a fortnight ago, and all I can get him to do now is to repeat them. I am not a hard man, Mr. Gilmore, as you know. Personally and privately, I do assure you, I should like to sponge out that note of mine at this very moment. But if Sir Percival won’t go into the matter, if Sir Percival will blindly leave all his interests in my sole care, what course can I possibly take except the course of asserting them? My hands are bound — don’t you see, my dear sir? — my hands are bound.”
“You maintain your note on the clause, then, to the letter?” I said.
“Yes — deuce take it! I have no other alternative.” He walked to the fireplace and warmed himself, humming the fag end of a tune in a rich convivial bass voice. “What does your side say?” he went on; “now pray tell me — what does your side say?” ["The Story continued by Vincent Gilmore, of Chancery Lane, Solicitor," Chapter III, p. 37; pp. 60-61 in the 1861 volume edition]
The two attorneys, the one seated (representing the Farlies, Gilmore) and the other standing by the fire (Sir Percival Glyde’s attorney, Merrimen) are at loggerheads over a point in the marriage contract for twenty-year-old Miss Laura Fairlie’s impending union with the forty-five-year-old baronet, Sir Percival Glyde. If she dies without issue, argues Merriman, the whole of her unencumbered estate in her own right, twenty-thousand pounds, ought to go solely to her husband; on the other hand, Gilmore represents the family’s interest, namely that the twenty-thousand ought to revert to her half-sister, Miss Marian Halcombe and such other relatives as she might choose to benefit in her will. Gilmore, dealing with Merriman (who has just dropped by after receiving unsatisfactory responses from Gilmore), refuses any compromise. Gilmore in his account has already told the reader that, appearances to the contrary, Sir Percival is actually rather “hard up,” and that, although his estate was considerable, the debts upon it were “enormous.” The principal, not merely the interest on Laura Fairlie’s twenty thousand, must go to Sir Percival, insists the jovial Merriman. Little does Merriman know that the guardian, Mr. Frederick Fairlie, has washed his hands of the affair, and that Gilmore is following the dictates of his own conscience.
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 21 June 2024