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"She turned fearfully pale, and leaned back gainst the wall."
F. A. Fraser
Wood engraving by the Dalziel Brothers
6 ¼ x 4 ⅛ inches (15.9 cm high by 10.3 cm wide)
Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, seventh illustration, facing p. 297.
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Scanned image by Simon Cooke and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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I found that her ladyship had certainly gained in health during the last few days. Although still sadly weak and nervous, she was able to get up without assistance, and to walk slowly about her room, feeling no worse effect from the exertion than a slight sensation of fatigue. She had been made a little anxious that morning about Miss Halcombe, through having received no news of her from any one. I thought this seemed to imply a blamable want of attention on the part of Mrs. Rubelle, but I said nothing, and remained with Lady Glyde to assist her to dress. When she was ready we both left the room together to go to Miss Halcombe.
We were stopped in the passage by the appearance of Sir Percival. He looked as if he had been purposely waiting there to see us.
“Where are you going?” he said to Lady Glyde.
“To Marian’s room,” she answered.
“It may spare you a disappointment,” remarked Sir Percival, “if I tell you at once that you will not find her there.”
“Not find her there!”
“No. She left the house yesterday morning with Fosco and his wife.”
Lady Glyde was not strong enough to bear the surprise of this extraordinary statement. She turned fearfully pale, and leaned back against the wall, looking at her husband in dead silence.
I was so astonished myself that I hardly knew what to say. I asked Sir Percival if he really meant that Miss Halcombe had left Blackwater Park.
“I certainly mean it,” he answered. ["The Housekeeper's Narrative, Continued," from serial instalment XXV; in the 1875 edition, p. 297]
Laura, somewhat recovered, now faces her odious husband, Sir Percival Glyde, whose supercilious conduct towards his young wife the housekeeper at Blackwater notes with disapproval in her testimony. One may compare a realisation of the same scene in the Harper's serial, with John McLenan's more wooden figures of Laura and Sir Percival in "I shall see you no more," she said, in a very marked manner. "This is our parting —" (12 May 1860). McLenan foregrounds Laura and Sir Percival, but, unlike Fraser, communicates little about the setting and excludes the judgmental housekeeper entirely.
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: A Novel. Illustrated by John McLenan. New York: Harper & Bros., 1861.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. London: Sampson Low, 1860; rpt. with illustrations by F. A. Fraser and Sir John Gilbert. London: Chatto & Windus, 1875.
raser and Sir John Gilbert. London: Sampson Low, 1860; rpt., Chatto & Windus, 1875.Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert. London: Minerva, 2006.
Created 19 September 2024