"So we walked on moodily, no longer arm in arm, nor hand in hand" by John McLenan for Bulwer-Lytton "A Strange Story" in "Harper's Weekly" (9 November 1861)

"So we walked on moodily, no longer arm in arm, nor hand in hand."

John McLenan

1861

Wood engraving

11.5 cm. squared (4 ½ inches)

Bulwer-Lytton's A Strange Story

Harper's Weekly 5 (9 November 1861): 734.

Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. ]

Passage Illustrated: Margrave's Singing Disrupts Allen's Relationship with Lilian

Margrave had disappeared!

“How came he there? It is not his hotel. Whose house is it?” I said aloud, though speaking to myself.

Lilian remained silent, her eyes fixed upon the ground as if in deep revery. I took her hand; it did not return my pressure. I felt cut to the heart when she drew coldly from me that hand, till then so frankly cordial. I stopped short: “Lilian, what is this? you are chilled towards me. Can the mere sound of that man’s voice, the mere glimpse of that man’s face, have —” I paused; I did not dare to complete my question.

Lilian lifted her eyes to mine, and I saw at once in those eyes a change. Their look was cold; not haughty, but abstracted. “I do not understand you,” she said, in a weary, listless accent. “It is growing late; I must go in.”

So we walked on moodily, no longer arm in arm, nor hand in hand. Then it occurred to me that, the next day, Lilian would be in that narrow world of society; that there she could scarcely fail to hear of Margrave, to meet, to know him. Jealousy seized me with all its imaginary terrors, and amidst that jealousy, a nobler, purer apprehension for herself. [Chapter XXXVII, page 734]

Commentary: The Mysterious Murder of Sir Philip Derval and Its Aftermath

Not many days after the narrator has discovered the bloody corpse of Sir Philip Derval in the street at dusk, he is out walking on the heights with Lilian, who has just returned with her anxious mother to L —. When Allen and Lilian go for a walk at dusk along the heights, they hear Margrave singing in a foreign language — and Lilian's attitude towards Allen changes dramatically as she becomes more distant and less animated. When he takes her home, he finds that Mrs. Ashleigh has still not told her daughter about Sir Philip's having been murdered. Allen attempts to make sure that Mrs. Ashleigh does not introduce her daughter to Margrave.

Bibliography

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G. D. A Strange Story. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly V, 10 August — 8 March 1862.

Created 21 November 2007

Last modified 10 July 2026