The Woman in White: The Second Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Marian spends a sleepless night regretting her decision to send Walter away from Limmeridge. When she rises the next morning, she hears that Laura has lost one of her favorite brooches and all of the servants have been sent out to search for it. Marian decides that—while everyone is distracted—this will be a good time for her to slip out and meet the messenger on the road, who has been ordered to carry a letter to her from her solicitor, Mr. Kyrle, in London. Before she sets out, Marian ensures that Count Fosco is in his sitting room—she hears him playing with his pet birds—and that Madame Fosco—whom she sees in the garden on her way out—does not plan to leave the house before lunch.

Marian waits on a stretch of road some distance from the house, hidden between two high hedges on either side. The messenger pulls up on his way past and gives her the letter. Mr. Kyrle agrees that Laura should not sign the document produced by Sir Percival. He says it is most likely an agreement which allows creditors to take money from Laura’s twenty thousand pounds to repay Sir Percival’s debts. He advises that Laura should sign nothing without allowing Mr. Kyrle to look at the document first.

Marian gives the letter back to the messenger and tells him to thank the person that sent it. Just as she is handing the letter back to him, Count Fosco appears suddenly on the road and sees Marian. The messenger drives off and Marian is horrified that her actions have been discovered. The Count, however, makes no reference to this. He simply says that he heard she was going for a walk and wished to join her. Almost rigid with fear, but striving to hide it, Marian takes his arm and allows him to lead her back to the house.

When they arrive back at Blackwater, they see that Sir Percival’s cart is in the drive. They meet him in the hall, and he gruffly reminds them that Laura must meet him in the library that afternoon. Count Fosco takes Sir Percival aside to discuss business and Marian collapses on a sofa in the drawing room in a state of nervous exhaustion. A few minutes later, Count Fosco pokes his head around the door and tells Marian that Sir Percival has wisely decided to drop the issue of the signature for the time being. Marian falls back into a swoon after he has left, and sleeps on the settee.

While dozing on the couch, Marian has a dream about Walter Hartright. She sees him lying on the steps of an ancient temple in the heart of the jungle and sees that the men around him are dying of disease. She begs him to come back. She sees him again trekking through the jungle, about to be attacked by men who lurk in the forest, and, again, she begs him to return. The third time she sees him in a storm at sea and sees him escape from a sinking wreck which kills all the other passengers. Finally, she sees him kneel beside a marble tomb and a woman in a veil rises out of the tomb and stands beside him.

Marian is woken from her dream by Laura, who tells her that she has just come from speaking to Anne Catherick. The women rush to Marian’s room and Laura tells Marian that she met Anne Catherick when she went to the boathouse to look for her brooch and that Anne had already found it there. Laura was struck by the likeness between Anne and herself. Anne told Laura that she is here to “atone” for the fact that she did not do more to stop Laura’s wedding to Sir Percival, whom she seems to hate and speaks of with a vicious, mad expression.

Anne told Laura that she did not do more at Limmeridge because she was afraid Sir Percival would put her in the madhouse again, but now she is not afraid because she is dying. She told Laura that the way to frighten Sir Percival is to learn his secret. Her mother, Mrs. Catherick, knows the secret, and she told Anne about it. Laura begged Anne to continue, but Anne seemed to hear something and rushed away into the plantation. She called back to Laura to meet her there at the same time the next day.

Marian finds that Laura has not learned much more from Anne and plans to follow Laura the next day, to meet Anne herself. Leaving Laura alone, she goes to find out Count Fosco’s whereabouts and is alarmed to hear he has gone for a walk with Sir Percival—something he never does. Marian is even more alarmed that evening, when Count Fosco and Sir Percival return home, because Sir Percival behaves civilly and kindly with Laura, the way he did when he courted her at Limmeridge. The Count too flatters Marian and is attentive to her all evening. Marian feels oppressed by the memory of her dream and senses that something terrible is about to happen. The Count seems to confirm her fears as she makes her way to bed; he tells her that change will come the next day.