The Moonstone: The Discovery of the Truth 1: 3 Summary & Analysis

Julia reveals to Clack that, for a long while, she has been “seriously ill […] without knowing it myself.” (Miss Clack worries that Julia might be “spiritually ill,” too.) When Julia took Rachel to her second doctor in London—an old friend of the family—he revealed that Julia has an “insidious form of heart disease” that has left her with only months to live, even though she lacks symptoms. She is in the process of arranging her “worldly affairs,” but she has not told Rachel, out of fear that Rachel would blame herself—and the Diamond—for Julia’s illness (which, in fact, she has had for years).

Clack is thrilled: Julia’s news offers her a “career of usefulness,” namely the opportunity to save Julia through Christianity. She offers meetings with three friends in the clergy, but Julia objects. Clack  determines to bring pamphlets instead and rushes out to bring them back before the lawyer’s arrival. Because she cares so deeply about Julia, she even takes a cab—and then gets scorned by the cab driver when she offers him some of her religious tracts, as well.

When she returns to the Verinder residence, Clack finds Julia is busy with the doctor, and is asked to wait with Mr. Bruff, the lawyer, who has just arrived. He is surprised to see her large bag, but she knows that to show him the pamphlets inside would be “to invite an outburst of profanity.” Mr. Bruff agrees that Clack will do as a witness, and she writes that she was delighted to hear that the will does not include her, which means  nobody will see sinister motives in her agreement to serve as witness.

Bruff then brings up the scandalous news of Godfrey, and Clack reprimands him for repeating the rumor that Godfrey is connected to the Diamond’s disappearance—but Bruff insists that the “ugly circumstances” justify this suspicion: Godfrey was present during the Diamond’s theft and it was no coincidence that the Indians pursued him in London. Clack cites Sergeant Cuff’s conclusion, and Bruff insists that he believes Rachel above all else. Clack points out that, just hours before, Rachel herself proclaimed Godfrey’s innocence—and she savors “the unholy triumph” of confounding Mr. Bruff, who apologizes, compliments her skill in argument, and begins to pace back and forth, contemplating the crime that he now finds “beyond conjecture.”

Although she regrets it while writing her narrative, Clack admits that she butted into Mr. Bruff’s monologue to insist that perhaps Mr. Franklin Blake could be responsible for the theft. Bruff agrees that his grounds for suspecting Godfrey are also sufficient reason to suspect Franklin, who is, after all, famously indebted. However, Bruff is also Franklin’s lawyer, and he explains that his creditors prefer to charge interest and wait rather than collect their debts immediately, and that—more damningly—Rachel was hoping to marry Franklin, whom she secretly loved. And, besides, Franklin so enthusiastically searched for the Diamond, even when nobody suspected him (and so he had no need to throw people off his trail). Bruff considers Clack’s suspicion of him a “monstrous proposition.” All that can be reasonably known, Bruff declares, is that Rachel, Godfrey, and Franklin are all innocent, and that Luker probably has the diamond.

Before Clack can again chastise and contradict Bruff, the servant announces that Julia is ready for them. Clack explains that she has summarized their conversation because it reveals who was suspected of the Diamond’s theft at the time, and so that she can correct her moral balance by apologizing for the “sinful self-esteem” she revealed in her argument with Bruff.