"Come back and sign!" cried Sir Percival from the other side of the table.
Sir John Gilbert
Wood engraving by the Dalziel Brothers
4 ¼ by 3 ½ inches (10.6 cm high by 8.7 cm wide), vignetted title-page.
Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, frontispiece.
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Scanned image by Simon Cooke and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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I had not spoken hitherto, and I would much rather not have spoken now. But the expression of distress in Laura’s face when she turned it towards me, and the insolent injustice of her husband’s conduct, left me no other alternative than to give my opinion, for her sake, as soon as I was asked for it.
“Excuse me, Sir Percival,” I said — “but as one of the witnesses to the signature, I venture to think that I have something to do with the matter. Laura’s objection seems to me a perfectly fair one, and speaking for myself only, I cannot assume the responsibility of witnessing her signature, unless she first understands what the writing is which you wish her to sign.”
“A cool declaration, upon my soul!” cried Sir Percival. “The next time you invite yourself to a man’s house, Miss Halcombe, I recommend you not to repay his hospitality by taking his wife’s side against him in a matter that doesn’t concern you.”
I started to my feet as suddenly as if he had struck me. If I had been a man, I would have knocked him down on the threshold of his own door, and have left his house, never on any earthly consideration to enter it again. But I was only a woman — and I loved his wife so dearly!
Thank God, that faithful love helped me, and I sat down again without saying a word. She knew what I had suffered and what I had suppressed. She ran round to me, with the tears streaming from her eyes. “Oh, Marian!” she whispered softly. “If my mother had been alive, she could have done no more for me!”
“Come back and sign!” cried Sir Percival from the other side of the table.
“Shall I?” she asked in my ear; “I will, if you tell me.” ["The Second Epoch. The Story continued by Marian Halcombe," Blackwater Park, Hampshire. IV. June 17th," p. 189.]
The frontispiece draws the attention of the volume reader to the central issue of the novel, the disposition and control of the estate of the heiress Laura Fairlie, whose interests her half-sister, Martian Halcombe, safeguards. The only principal character not present in the dramatic scene in which Sir Percival attempts to gain control of Laura's assets is the narrator-protagonist, Walter Hartright. The devious Count Fosco (right of centre) whispers in the ear of the balding, forty-five-year-old Sir Percival in the drawing-room at the Blackwater Park while the tall, dark-haired Marion (left) comforts the distressed heiress. Without her signing Sir Percival believes that he will not be able to secure a loan to cover his substantial debts, but already the ingenious Fosco seems to have hit upon a solution that will diffuse the present confrontation. In fact, this will involve disposing of the hapless Anne Catherick, "The Woman in White," and substituting in her stead Laura. Fosco's solution will involve committing Laura for life to a private London asylum under an imposed pseudo-identity.
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, Chatto & Windus, 1875.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert and F. A. Fraser. Toronto: Broadview, 2006.
Created 19 September 2024
