The Moonstone: The Discovery of the Truth 3: 4 Summary & Analysis

Franklin Blake is stunned and confused on his way back to the estate with Betteredge. When they arrive, Franklin begins to face the undeniable evidence of his own guilt. Betteredge insists that the nightgown is “a liar,” and that someone else must have used it—Franklin remembers that “Rosanna Spearman had once been a thief” and determines that she must have “smeared [his] nightgown purposely with the paint.”

Franklin Blake looks at the letter Rosanna has left in the tin: it begins with a declaration of her love. Franklin is astonished but Betteredge implores him to continue reading. Rosanna writes that she will “be dead and gone” when Franklin receives the letter, so can boldly “own the truth.” She says her love was the motive for all her actions. She finds her early life not worth mentioning in detail and explains that, when Franklin arrived at the Verinder estate, he was “like a prince in a fairy-story.” She did everything possible to win his attention and cried endlessly when he never did look at her. Rosanna hated Rachel because of Franklin’s love for her, and always replaced the roses Rachel gave Franklin with her own. She writes that she found Rachel ugly, but that she knows she cannot continue writing in such a spiteful tone.

Rosanna next writes that she plans to turn to the story of the Moonstone, but first she insists on explaining something else. She writes about how ashamed and lonely she felt after going through the reformatory, taking responsibility for her crimes, and moving to work at the Verinder estate. And she writes that, to cope with these feelings, she used to visit the Shivering Sand, where she felt that her life would come to an end. During the process of writing this letter, she explains, she realized she could actually use the quicksand to “end all [her] troubles […] and hide [herself] for ever afterwards.”

Rosanna then reaches the day of the Diamond’s theft. She tried to avoid “the foolish talk among the women servants” as well as Franklin, whom she hated for calling the police. When Seegrave came, she followed his orders; after he asked about the paint smear, Rosanna checked her own nightgowns, but Penelope assured her that the smear could not be her fault, since it must have happened late the night before. It could not have been any of the ladies’ faults, Penelope assured—but Penelope also had no interest in telling this to Seegrave.

Rosanna went on with her work, arranging Franklin’s room—and noticed the stain on his nightgown, which he had left on the bed. In astonishment, she hid the nightgown in her own room and told Penelope about it. She decided not to mention what she suspected Franklin was doing in Rachel’s room so late at night; but she also wonders if Rachel might not have been prudent enough to warn Franklin about the paint. She decided to keep the nightgown, but never suspected Franklin Blake might have stolen the Diamond.

At this point, Franklin Blake again interrupts the letter and recognizes that his initial shock about and sympathy for Rosanna have now turned into bitterness. He asks Betteredge to finish reading the letter, which continues below.

Rosanna next determined to make an identical nightgown to replace Franklin’s stained one, although first she carefully combed his room for paint stains and erased the small one she found inside the dressing-gown he likely put on over his nightgown. Seegrave then questioned the rest of the servants, and accused Penelope because—in Penelope’s own words, she was “the last person in the sitting-room at night.” Upon hearing this, Rosanna remembered that Franklin Blake was in the sitting-room even later—and immediately decided he must have been the thief, because this allowed her to construe stealing his night-gown as a “means of shielding [him] from being discovered.”

To get closer to Franklin, Rosanna writes, she then approached him in the library under the pretense of his leaving a ring upstairs—but she is so put off by his “cruel distance” that she decides to provoke him by insisting “they will never find the Diamond” (her way of accusing Franklin of the theft to his face). She feigned illness that night to buy the linen for Franklin’s new nightgown, which she added to his clothing the next day. But then Sergeant Cuff arrived, and she was devastated to be seen as guilty precisely when she thought she was covering for Franklin.

Betteredge and Franklin take a break from Rosanna’s letter to talk—Franklin does not want to discuss his  reaction until the end of the letter, and he tells Betteredge that Mr. Bruff and Sergeant Cuff are the only other people he can consult about the case. At that moment, “the most remarkable-looking man that [Franklin] had ever seen” walks in. He is old and wrinkled, with unevenly grayed hair and “soft brown eyes.” He offers Betteredge a piece of paper, “the list for next week,” and walks out. Betteredge explains that the man is the assistant to Mr. Candy, who “lost his memory” during his previous illness and can no longer practice medicine. “Nobody likes” this assistant, whose “list” includes the names of poor patients who need wine from the Verinders’ surplus. And he has “as ugly a name as need be,” in Betteredge’s words: “Ezra Jennings.”