The Woman in White: The Third Epoch: Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Mrs. Catherick is pleased by Sir Percival’s death. She feels that Walter has had a hand in it—by investigating Sir Percival and frightening him into trying to destroy the evidence himself—and thanks him for it; she would have hated Walter if he had managed to save Sir Percival from the fire. As thanks for his part in Sir Percival’s death, Mrs. Catherick writes to tell Walter about her own history, which he came to ask her about.

Mrs. Catherick describes herself as a young woman living in Old Welmingham when Sir Percival came to the village. She says that he used to buy her presents and flatter her. He promised her a gold watch if she would get him the key to the vestry and, unable to resist, she did. She spied on him when he was there and learned of the forgery. She was young and careless and kept Sir Percival’s secret for him because she did not realize what he did was illegal. Sir Percival told Mrs. Catherick that he was born illegitimate and that his father died without producing a will.

In order to claim his father’s property—Blackwater Park—Sir Percival needed a marriage certificate from his parents. The property should really have been inherited by a cousin of Sir Percival’s. Sir Percival originally planned to tear the page out of the register and destroy it so that no one could prove he was illegitimate, but he decided, on a whim and noticing the space at the bottom of the page, to forge his parent’s names.

Mrs. Catherick helped Sir Percival because he promised her a gold watch. She begged him to clear her name with her husband and tell him that she and Sir Percival were not having an affair. Sir Percival, however, refused, and told Mrs. Catherick that he wanted people to believe that they were having an affair so that they would never suspect his real secret. He also frightened Mrs. Catherick by implying that she would be hung if anyone found out that she had helped him. He paid her to remain in the village where she would have no friends and could not spread his secret. Mrs. Catherick, who needed money to provide for Anne, did as he told her.

She next tells Walter that she will explain how Anne came to be involved in the secret and why Sir Percival locked her up. Mrs. Catherick admits that she never really cared much for her daughter and was glad that Mrs. Clements took her off her hands. However, she did not like Mrs. Clements either and decided to separate Mrs. Clements and Anne after their time at Limmeridge. She did this because Anne had taken to dressing all in white clothes and Mrs. Clements encouraged this, while Mrs. Catherick hated it. Mrs. Catherick notes that Anne was encouraged to wear all white by Mrs. Fairlie, whom Mrs. Catherick also seems to dislike, and who, she says, “entrapped” the “most handsome man” in the county, Mr. Philip Fairlie.

While Anne was living with her mother, Mrs. Catherick wrote to Sir Percival and asked if she could take Anne to the seaside for a change of scenery. Sir Percival wrote back rudely and Mrs. Catherick, losing her temper, cried out that she could “ruin” Sir Percival “for life” if she revealed his secret. Anne overheard her and seemed to take this idea to heart.

The next day, Sir Percival arrived at Mrs. Catherick’s house. When he saw Anne, he ordered her out of the room, but Anne refused to go. Sir Percival called her an “idiot”—a word she hated—and Anne lost her temper. She warned Sir Percival that he must treat her with respect and that she could “ruin” him if she chose to by telling his secret. Sir Percival became frantic upon hearing this. Mrs. Catherick tried to persuade him that Anne really knew nothing and only repeated what she had heard Mrs. Catherick say the day before, but Sir Percival would not believe her. He insisted that Anne be placed in an asylum, and Mrs. Catherick did not protest; she only insisted that it be a private asylum and not a pauper’s one.

She believes that Anne was clever enough to work out who had locked her up and why, but that—even if she pretended to know the secret in her letter to Laura—she really could not have told them anything about Sir Percival, except that he had a secret. Mrs. Catherick closes the letter by saying that she has saved enough of the money Sir Percival sent her to live comfortably after his death. She also tells Walter that he must not criticize anyone he suspects of being Anne’s father, as he did when he came to visit, and that she wants him to apologize. She tells him that he may come to see her again and that she will remain in Welmingham and continue her life as a respectable lady.