The Woman in White: Halcombe 4

Summary

Storytime for Grownups: Episode Summary – The Woman in White: Halcombe 4

Podcast Information

• Title: Storytime for Grownups
• Host: Faith Moore
• Episode: The Woman in White: Halcombe 4
• Release Date: February 27, 2025
• Description: Storytime for Grownups helps listeners develop a love for classic literature through engaging readings and insightful commentary. Hosted by Faith Moore, each episode delves into classic novels with thoughtful analysis and discussion.

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1. Welcome Back: Faith and Michelle Rejoin

[00:00 – 05:12] In this episode, Faith Moore welcomes back Michelle Watson, who had been absent for several weeks. Michelle expresses her excitement to return and reconnect with the audience, saying, “I hope you felt like I was still there with you in some way” (00:44). They update listeners on recent developments in the story of The Woman in White, including Laura’s marriage, the move to Blackwater Park, and the introduction of key characters like Count Fosco and Madame Fosco.

2. Housekeeping and Community Engagement

[05:12 – 07:00] Faith and Michelle discuss the show's online community, The Drawing Room, highlighting its role as a space for listeners to engage in discussions and ask questions. Michelle notes, “It's kind of like a group phone call so I can hear you, you can hear me” (02:23). They encourage listeners to join the Landed Gentry membership tier for exclusive access and to support the show through ratings and reviews.

3. Recap of Previous Chapters

[07:00 – 10:30] Faith provides a concise recap of where the story left off. Marian overhears Sir Percival discussing the need for Laura to sign a mysterious document related to his debts. Subsequently, during a day at the lake, a conversation about crime and morality unfolds, revealing Count Fosco’s complex character. Marian finds a blood stain from Mrs. Catherick’s dog, leading to tension as Sir Percival questions her about it (09:18). The episode sets the stage for the current chapter by highlighting these pivotal moments.

4. Listener Questions and Character Analysis

[10:30 – 18:24] Michelle introduces today’s question from a listener, focusing on Count Fosco’s contradictory nature. She shares her fascination with him, stating, “I love Count Fosco” and encourages listeners to embrace mixed feelings towards his character (10:41). The discussion delves into Fosco’s philosophical musings on crime, his unsettling conversation about murder in the boathouse, and his influence over Sir Percival. Michelle remarks, “He’s so fun to read about because he's a pile of contradictions” (10:46), highlighting the character’s complexity and the suspense he brings to the narrative.

5. Insights on Key Characters

[18:24 – 31:36] Faith and Michelle explore the unsettling dynamics between Sir Percival, Count Fosco, and Anne Catherick. They clarify misconceptions, particularly addressing Mr. Fairley’s true nature as not ill but manipulative and narcissistic. Faith exclaims, “Please hate Mr. Fairley. You should hate him” (06:15), reinforcing his antagonistic role. Additionally, they discuss the lingering mystery of Anne Catherick, with Michelle affirming, “she is sort of still there kind of hanging over the story” (07:52). This section underscores the characters’ motivations and the looming threats within the plot.

6. Chapter Four: Halcombe’s Narrative

[31:36 – 54:58] Faith begins the reading of Chapter Four, detailing the escalating tension between Laura, Sir Percival, and Count Fosco. Key developments include:

• The Confrontation: Sir Percival demands Laura to sign an undisclosed document, pressuring her with threats of public disgrace (25:50). Count Fosco intervenes, attempting to mediate but only adding to the tension with his unsettling calmness.

• Laura’s Dilemma: Caught between her loyalty to Marian and the coercive demands of Sir Percival, Laura stands firm, declaring, “I will refuse my signature until I have read every line in that parchment” (27:08). This act of defiance showcases her moral fortitude amidst manipulation.

• Marian’s Support: Marian assists Laura by drafting a letter to Mr. Curll, seeking legal advice and strategizing to prevent the forced signing of the document. Faith articulates Marian’s realization, “So the only way... is to figure out some actual legal reason not to” (45:10), highlighting their collaborative efforts to outmaneuver Sir Percival.

• Count Fosco’s Influence: Despite Count Fosco’s outward sympathy, his control remains evident. Michelle observes, “You are not afraid of him, are you?” (50:12), emphasizing the underlying fear and power dynamics at play.

Throughout the reading, Faith pauses to provide insightful annotations, enhancing listeners' understanding of the narrative’s intricacies and character motivations.

7. Notable Quotes and Moments

• Mr. Fairley’s True Nature: “Mr. Fairley is a narcissistic, sad little man who has made up this imaginary illness” (05:53).

• Count Fosco’s Contradictions: “He’s a master performer. He’s a perfect Italian, and he's a perfect Englishman” (10:55).

• Laura’s Moral Stance: “I will do nothing ignorantly... I will do everything honestly” (15:57).

• Faith’s Insight on Sir Percival: “His elaborate delicacy... convinced me that he had been acting a part” (46:14).

8. Conclusion and Next Steps

[54:58 – End] As Chapter Four concludes, Faith and Michelle reflect on the heightened stakes and unresolved tensions. Marian’s and Laura’s strategic moves aim to safeguard themselves against Sir Percival’s manipulations, while Count Fosco’s enigmatic behavior continues to cast a shadow over their efforts. Faith emphasizes the importance of discretion and vigilance, stating, “I must be careful to keep up friendly appearances with the Count” (50:19). The episode wraps up with an invitation to listeners to join the next tea time session and a teaser for future developments in the story.

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Engage with Us Faith and Michelle encourage listeners to share their thoughts and questions through the podcast’s website faithkmoore.com or the links provided in the show notes. They invite feedback and participation in the online community to deepen the discussion around The Woman in White.

Support the Show Listeners are reminded to rate, review, and subscribe to help grow the podcast. Faith graciously requests support through membership options and donations, ensuring the continued production of engaging literary content.

Stay Tuned Join Faith and Michelle in the next episode as they delve deeper into The Woman in White, unraveling more of its intricate plot and complex characters. Until then, enjoy your cozy chair and a pot of tea—it's always storytime.

Transcript

[Faith Moore]

Hello and welcome to Storytime for Grown Ups. I'm Faith Moore and this season we're reading the Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Each episode I'll read a few chapters from the book, pausing from time to time to give brief explanations so it's easier to follow along. It's like an audiobook with built in notes. So brew a pot of tea, find a cozy chair and settle in. It's story time.

[Michelle Watson]

Hello.

[Faith Moore]

I'm back.

[Michelle Watson]

Oh my gosh, I missed you guys so much. I know that episodes kept coming out and I was still talking to you, so I hope that you felt like I was still there with you in some way. But I wasn't there. I recorded all of those weeks ago. And so I really have missed talking to you and talking about this book.

[Faith Moore]

I've missed this book. I've missed you.

[Michelle Watson]

Thank you for emailing me. Many of you have been emailing me even when I was gone. And I appreciate that. It was like having a little line, a little lifeline back to you guys and to the show. And I really appreciated that. And I've been answering those emails now that I'm back. So I hope you're getting my responses. And so I'm just thrilled. I'm thrilled to be back with you again. So much happened while I was gone. I didn't plan it that way. I wish that it had been a different time, that I could have gone away. Because when I left, Laura was still at Limmeridge with Marian and now she's married. They've moved to Blackwater Park. We've introduced Count Fosco and Madame Fosco. So much has happened and I wasn't there. But I was there because I did read it and we did talk about it together. And I've gotten all your emails. So I'm here. I'm caught up. I hope you are too. And I'm just thrilled that you're here. I want to talk about a couple of things before we go into the recap and the question for today because there were a few comments that I got over the time that I was gone that I didn't address in my comments because I didn't anticipate them, really. Just like two or three things.

[Faith Moore]

So I'm going to talk about those.

[Michelle Watson]

Very, very quickly in just a second. But also just a quick housekeeping Note today. Tonight, February 27th, Thursday is our second tea time over in our online community, the Drawing Room. And so that's going to be happening tonight at 8pm Eastern for about an hour.

[Faith Moore]

It's where we talk together.

[Michelle Watson]

It's kind of like a group phone call so I can hear you, you can hear me, and we have a chat.

[Faith Moore]

We'll talk about this book a little bit.

[Michelle Watson]

If you have questions, kind of like an ask me anything, you can bring those questions to the chat and I would be happy to answer those questions about the book, questions about this podcast, or just questions in general that you have for me. Whatever they are, I'm happy to answer them and we'll talk together. It's just a kind of fun, cozy time to be together and get to chat in a different way.

[Faith Moore]

In order to join, you have to.

[Michelle Watson]

Be a member of the Landed Gentry membership tier of the various membership options that we have here at Storytime for grown ups.

[Faith Moore]

To do that, just scroll down into the description of this episode in your.

[Michelle Watson]

Podcast player, wherever you're listening, and you'll.

[Faith Moore]

Find a link to check out the membership options.

[Michelle Watson]

Clicking that link does not sign you up for anything. It doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't take your money, it doesn't do anything. It just gives you some more information about the various levels that we have. And if you're interested in joining tonight, you can can click on the Landed Gentry option and sign up. It's $10 a month. I think you can cancel whenever you want. So if you want to just join for this month and join us and see what it's like and then decide if you want to stay, that's completely fine. It also gives you access to the Drawing room, which is an online community where you can chat to each other. You know, type into a message box and talk to each other. And there are some great conversations going on over there. I jump in from time to time, but really lots of people are there and they're all having a conversation about this book. Sometimes they talk about other things. There are different channels for the different books that we're reading. There are no spoilers unless you want them. It's great over there, so I hope you'll check that out. Also, just as always, if you're enjoying.

[Faith Moore]

The show, please tap those five stars.

[Michelle Watson]

And if you have a couple of extra seconds, write a positive review. Those things really help. Don't forget to subscribe. Then every episode will just automatically magically appear in your podcast player and tell your friends. Send a link to this show or this episode or whatever you want to a friend or a colleague and tell them that they might like this show. That's the best way that you can grow this show. And you don't have to have any kind of social media or anything at all to do it. Just this podcast, which you already have, because you're listening to my voice now. So I would love it if you would do that. And if you want to scroll down and look at those other links, I really encourage you to do that. There's lots there.

[Faith Moore]

There's our merch store.

[Michelle Watson]

We've got lots of cool designs, and more are coming. You can learn more about me, you can pick up one of my books, you can support the show financially, but most importantly, you can find the Contact page, which is how you get in touch with me. That's how you write in your questions, your thoughts. And I love those. Please keep those coming. You can click on that or you can just go to my website, faithkmoore.com and click on contact and send me your questions and thoughts because I absolutely love to hear from you. You are never bothering me, and I will always write back unless you say something mean or type your email in.

[Faith Moore]

Wrong, which does happen, and then it.

[Michelle Watson]

Gets bounced back to me, and I have no way to get back in touch with you. So make sure you put your email in correctly if you'd like to hear back. Okay, three very quick things about the book before we move into the recap and today's question.

[Faith Moore]

The first is about Mr. Fairley.

[Michelle Watson]

I got a lot of emails while I was gone about Mr. Fairley, and many of you were saying, you know.

[Faith Moore]

You tried to have sympathy for Mr.

[Michelle Watson]

Fairley because he's ill, and you know that when people are ill, they're often cranky or they can't really pull themselves together, and. And it's good to have some compassion for a person like that. But you're having a really hard time liking him. Even so, he's so horrible. So I want to exonerate you by clarifying something.

[Faith Moore]

Mr. Fairley is not ill. There's nothing wrong with Mr. Fairley. Mr. Fairley is a narcissistic, sad little.

[Michelle Watson]

Man who has made up this imaginary illness about his nerves so that he can languish in his room and make everyone do what he wants to do, which he can do because he's the.

[Faith Moore]

Man of the house and he can.

[Michelle Watson]

Do whatever he wants.

[Faith Moore]

So please hate Mr. Fairley. You should hate him. He's a hateful man.

[Michelle Watson]

And I give you full permission to not like him at all and to have no sympathy for him whatsoever. So that's the first thing. The second thing that you guys noticed.

[Faith Moore]

Was that Marian's Narrative which you're in.

[Michelle Watson]

Now is diary entries rather than a kind of after the fact narrative which all the other entries have been before. So what you guys have been pointing out and which is completely true is that we don't know where Marian is now. Wherever now is when Walter is compiling all these narratives. We don't know if she's okay or not. We don't know why we're getting her.

[Faith Moore]

Diary entries instead of some sort of narrative after the fact.

[Michelle Watson]

Does that mean that something horrible has happened to Marian? And all I can say isn't Wilkie Collins amazing?

[Faith Moore]

Even the structure of the book is suspenseful.

[Michelle Watson]

That's all I can say. We don't know yet. We don't know what's going on with Marian and why we're getting her diary entries.

[Faith Moore]

But it's true.

[Michelle Watson]

We don't know if Marian's going to be okay at the end of it.

[Faith Moore]

And the last thing is just to.

[Michelle Watson]

Acknowledge that we haven't talked about Anne Catherick for a while, but you guys have been mentioning her and wondering about her and she's the title character and Sir Percival still seems to really want to find her. So she is sort of still there kind of hanging over the story a little bit. But it's true that we haven't seen her in a while and nothing has really happened about her in a while except that now. So Percival is going off to visit Mrs. Catherick, we think because she came to the house and he doesn't know why.

[Faith Moore]

But I did get a lot of.

[Michelle Watson]

Emails from you while I was gone saying, but what about Anne Catherick? What's going on with her? And the answer is we don't know yet. But something we know she's important, she's the title character. And Sir Percival is kind of upset about Mrs. Catherick. So something's going to happen with Anne Catherick. We just don't know what it is yet. And so I just wanted to acknowledge I haven't forgotten about Anne Catherick and when and if she comes back into the story, we will talk about her. Okay, so last time we read Halcombe's narrative, chapter three. And today we're going to read Halcombe's narrative, chapter four.

[Faith Moore]

So let's do the recap.

[Michelle Watson]

And then I have a question to talk more specifically about the chapter from last time. So here is the recap.

[Faith Moore]

Okay, so where we left off, Marian overhears the solicitor talking to Sir Percival and telling him that he needs to.

[Michelle Watson]

Get Laura to save sign some kind.

[Faith Moore]

Of document that seems to have to.

[Michelle Watson]

Do with Sir Percival's debts.

[Faith Moore]

Marian suspects that Sir Percival needs some of Laura's money to help him to pay off his debts, and she warns.

[Michelle Watson]

Laura not to sign anything before she reads it.

[Faith Moore]

Laura agrees that she's not going to.

[Michelle Watson]

Sign anything that associates her with anything.

[Faith Moore]

Nefarious, but she will sign if he.

[Michelle Watson]

Just needs some money. Percival immediately starts acting kinder to Laura.

[Faith Moore]

And more attentive to her, and Marian.

[Michelle Watson]

Suspects it's because he wants her to agree to sign this document. So everyone decides to go and spend the day at the lake, and they.

[Faith Moore]

All end up in the boathouse.

[Michelle Watson]

And they fall into this discussion about crime and criminals.

[Faith Moore]

And Fosco kind of shocks Marian and Laura by saying that some crimes are justified. And he says that marrying for money.

[Michelle Watson]

Is kind of like prostitution. While Count Fosco is playing with his.

[Faith Moore]

Mice, one of them escapes.

[Michelle Watson]

And while he's looking for it, Fosco.

[Faith Moore]

Discovers the blood stain from the dog.

[Michelle Watson]

That Marian found there earlier. And this causes Marian to have to reveal that it was Mrs. Catherick's dog that Mrs. Catherick had been to the house. Even though Mrs. Catherick didn't want Sir.

[Faith Moore]

Percival to know it.

[Michelle Watson]

Marian feels like she has to tell him.

[Faith Moore]

Now.

[Michelle Watson]

This upsets Sir Percival, and he rushes off.

[Faith Moore]

Count Fosco seems not to have known.

[Michelle Watson]

About Anne Catherick and Sir Percival helping her to find a private asylum and everything.

[Faith Moore]

And he questions Marian about the whole situation.

[Michelle Watson]

He seems very interested in it. When they get back to the house.

[Faith Moore]

Sir Percival's getting ready to leave, and.

[Michelle Watson]

Marian assumes that he's going to visit Mrs. Catherick to sort of confront her about what she was doing at his house.

[Faith Moore]

But before he leaves, he asks Laura.

[Michelle Watson]

To come into his study and attend to some business. He also asks Count Fosco and Lady Fosco to come in as witnesses. And so they all go inside and they leave Marian alone, feeling pretty worried.

[Count Fosco]

About the whole thing.

[Faith Moore]

All right, so today's question.

[Michelle Watson]

Oh, I'm so happy to be back to questions. Okay, sorry. Today's question comes to us from Michelle Watson. Michelle writes, the characters in this book.

[Faith Moore]

Just keep getting better and better.

[Michelle Watson]

Count Fosco makes me so uncomfortable, but.

[Faith Moore]

He'S so fun to read about because he's a pile of contradictions. I feel like he's a master performer. He's a perfect Italian, and he's a perfect Englishman.

[Michelle Watson]

He's feminine and masculine.

[Faith Moore]

He's magnetically friendly and dangerously controlling the.

[Michelle Watson]

Conversation in the boathouse. Feels like it laid the foundation for what's coming. Murder, getting away with crimes, moral relativism.

[Faith Moore]

Contempt for the police, the hypocrisy of English society. This is getting so good.

[Michelle Watson]

Okay, so, yes, I don't want to say too much about this yet, because I really, really, really don't want to give anything away, and I won't. But I have to tell you that I love Count Fosco. I don't mean that I would like to be his friend or anything. I wouldn't like him as a person if I met him, although I might. I mean, Marian does, but I mean that I love him as a character. I'll say more about why much later, but I do want to say that it's okay to approach Fosco with kind of mixed feelings. You know, like Michel says, he's really fun to read about.

[Faith Moore]

For me, he's kind of another one.

[Michelle Watson]

Of these, like, deliciously strange and confusing elements of this story. I love all his contradictions and the.

[Faith Moore]

Way he's sort of larger than life.

[Michelle Watson]

And the way he seems to hypnotize.

[Faith Moore]

Everyone and bring everything under his control.

[Michelle Watson]

I mean, he's so weird, right? But also kind of captivating. And you can wonder about him and be sort of wary about him and still find him fun in the. Which I do. But as Michelle points out, and I got lots of other letters that were essentially variations on this same theme. There is this really kind of weird.

[Faith Moore]

Random conversation between Percival and Fosco in.

[Michelle Watson]

The boathouse about murder. And I think probably all of our ears sort of pricked up when we heard it, right? Because a murder is exactly what we've been anticipating all this time. And we thought it was going to happen. Specifically, we thought Sir Percival was going.

[Faith Moore]

To murder Laura for her money.

[Michelle Watson]

We thought it was going to happen at various points along the way, and it hasn't. Laura keeps being alive, and Percival keeps not really doing anything that even hints at trying to murder her. And then suddenly, kind of out of the blue, in front of everyone, he's like, this would be a great place to hide a body or whatever. So that's kind of weird. And the Count's response is even weirder. I think it's sort of like he's saying he's okay with murders generally, but disagrees that this would be a good place for one, right? Here's what he the water is too.

[Faith Moore]

Shallow to hide the body, and there is sand everywhere to print off the murderer's footsteps. It is, upon the whole, the very.

[Michelle Watson]

Worst place For a murder that I ever set my eyes on, right? So suddenly Percival, who we've thought for a while now is going to turn out to be a murderer, and not.

[Faith Moore]

Just a murderer, but like a cold blooded one, right?

[Michelle Watson]

Killing Laura for her money. Suddenly he's talking about murder to everyone and anyone. But it's the Count who actually seems like he's thought a lot about murder and how to commit one in such a way that it wouldn't being discovered, right? And the whole thing is made even weirder by the fact that this is.

[Faith Moore]

Meant to be a kind of lovely.

[Michelle Watson]

Outdoor excursion for the house party, right? They're all taking the air or something. It's not at all the kind of conversation that you'd expect to have in this setting or in front of ladies if you're going to have this sort of conversation at all.

[Faith Moore]

And it suddenly turns the Count from someone who previously seemed sort of laughable, right?

[Michelle Watson]

With all of his little animals and his giant flowery waistcoats and his pastries and everything.

[Faith Moore]

It turns him from that into something.

[Michelle Watson]

Potentially more sinister, right? Even though nothing about him has really changed except that he's now talking about murder. Marian suddenly finds him repulsive when she.

[Faith Moore]

Used to find him appealing.

[Michelle Watson]

Here's what she they are pretty innocent looking little creatures. She's talking about the mice crawling on him, right?

[Faith Moore]

But the sight of them creeping about a man's body is for some reason.

[Michelle Watson]

Not pleasant to me.

[Faith Moore]

It excites a strange, responsive creeping in my own nerves and suggests hideous ideas of men dying in prison with the.

[Michelle Watson]

Crawling creatures of the dungeon preying on them undisturbed. I mean, okay, gross, right? Except the image is interesting because Marian isn't thinking of Fosco in that moment as a murderer, but actually as a corpse. But either way, there is this sense.

[Faith Moore]

That Laura and Marian have found themselves.

[Michelle Watson]

In this at best kind of cynical and jaded conversation and at worse a kind of dangerous conversation. And that they really shouldn't be there, right?

[Faith Moore]

All of Laura's grand pronouncements about virtue.

[Michelle Watson]

And criminals being caught and everything.

[Faith Moore]

They sound very childish and naive in the face of Percival and the Count's.

[Michelle Watson]

Kind of worldly and cynical viewpoint. So we're getting the sense, I think, that whether or not an actual murder is going to be committed, Laura and Marian are very much out of their depth. And this is a problem because now Sir Percival very obviously wants something from Laura, right?

[Faith Moore]

He wants her signature on something which Marian suspects has to do with her.

[Michelle Watson]

Giving over some of her fortune to help pay off Sir Percival's debts.

[Faith Moore]

And Laura feels like she's willing to help him, but not if what he.

[Michelle Watson]

Wants the money for is something nefarious or if it would have some sort of bad ramifications down the road. Which, by the way, for those of you who have been feeling like Laura is a kind of waste of space, this is pretty gutsy of her. Right, here's what she Whatever I can.

[Faith Moore]

Harmlessly and honestly do to help him, I will do for the sake of making your life and mine love as easy and as happy as possible.

[Michelle Watson]

So she's talking to Marian, right?

[Faith Moore]

But I will do nothing ignorantly, which.

[Michelle Watson]

We might one day have reason to feel ashamed of.

[Faith Moore]

So she's willing to do what Percival says to protect Marian. You know, we've seen Marian as the.

[Michelle Watson]

One protecting Laura, and that's true. But Laura is also doing her part.

[Faith Moore]

To protect Marian, because Marian is living in the house at Sir Percival's invitation and could be thrown out at any minute. So Laura feels a responsibility toward her.

[Michelle Watson]

And she's exercising it.

[Faith Moore]

And Laura has a sense of right and wrong, and she isn't afraid to stand firm and go against Sir Percival's.

[Michelle Watson]

Wishes if she feels he's asking her.

[Count Fosco]

To do something wrong.

[Michelle Watson]

Even her pronouncements about virtue and crime that we were just talking about a minute ago, they show some backbone, I think. You know, she didn't have to speak up and state her case that way. So, like I've been saying, there's a bit more to Laura, I think, than meets the eye. But even so, she's definitely in over her head. Or at least in a situation where she has no power and the people who may or may not want to harm her have all the power. Right? Percival is suddenly being kind and attentive to Laura again when he dropped that. And he'd become kind of cranky before. And that doesn't bode well because it means that he wants her to do something for him that she might not want to do.

[Faith Moore]

And Marian suspects that the Count is.

[Michelle Watson]

At least aware of Sir Percival's money problems.

[Faith Moore]

So the Count seems like he's potentially.

[Michelle Watson]

On Percival's side, at least in this particular situation.

[Faith Moore]

Though it's not clear because the Count.

[Michelle Watson]

Also seems to feel totally fine about telling Percival to calm down and chill out. So he may end up helping Laura and Marian. We don't know yet.

[Faith Moore]

And one other thing that's interesting to note, of course, is that the Count.

[Michelle Watson]

Doesn'T seem to know about Anne Catherick. Right.

[Faith Moore]

For all of his closeness with Sir Percival.

[Michelle Watson]

The situation with Anne seems totally new to Fosco.

[Faith Moore]

And the fact that Sir Percival is.

[Michelle Watson]

So upset to learn that Mrs. Catherick.

[Faith Moore]

Has been to his house and the fact that Mrs. Catherick didn't want Percival.

[Michelle Watson]

To know that she'd been there in the first place. I think this implies that there's more to the Anne Catherick situation than what Sir Percival originally said. Because Otherwise, why wouldn't Mrs. Catherick be fine with Percival knowing she was there? And why would Percival be so angry with her for coming there? So the situation with the woman in white is still a mystery, like I was saying before, and it turns out.

[Faith Moore]

To be a mystery even from Percival's closest friend, Count Fosco.

[Michelle Watson]

And I think if we're still feeling like Percival is our villain, then the fact that he's upset about the money.

[Faith Moore]

And upset about Anne makes him a.

[Michelle Watson]

Bit of a loose cannon at this point. And all that talk of murder and Fosco's reaction to it might make us wonder if Fosco is going to play some part in the crime, or even instead if he's going to save Laura and Marian from whatever crime is going to be committed. So now we've left Marian outside of the room where Percival is presumably going to present Laura with whatever paper she's supposed to sign. And Fosco and Madame Fosco are in there too. So we're gonna have to see how Laura handles herself in there and what it even is that Percival actually wants from her. And what the heck Fosco has to do with all of this in the first place. So let's find out. And don't forget to write to me.

[Faith Moore]

Faithkmoore.Com click on contact or just scroll.

[Michelle Watson]

On down and click the link. And don't forget to join me tonight at 8pm Eastern for tea time. And sign up and join us, if you aren't already a member.

[Faith Moore]

All right, let's get started with Halcomb's narrative, chapter four of the Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

[Michelle Watson]

It's story time.

[Faith Moore]

Four, June 17th. Just as my hand was on the door of my room, I heard Sir Percival's voice calling to me from below.

[Count Fosco]

I must beg you to come downstairs again, he said. It is Fosco's fault, Ms. Halcombe, not mine. He has started some nonsensical objection to his wife being one of the witnesses.

[Faith Moore]

And has obliged me to ask you.

[Count Fosco]

To join us in the library.

[Faith Moore]

I entered the room immediately with Sir Percival. Laura was waiting by the writing table, twisting and turning her garden hat uneasily in her hands. Madame Fosco sat near her in an armchair, imperturbably admiring her husband, who stood by himself at the other end of.

[Michelle Watson]

The library, picking off the dead leaves.

[Faith Moore]

From the flowers in the window. The moment I appeared, the count advanced to meet me and to offer his explanations.

[Count Fosco]

A thousand pardons, Ms. Halcombe, he said. You know the character which is given to my countrymen by the English. We Italians are all wily and suspicious by nature in the estimation of the good John Bull. So John Bull is a kind of.

[Faith Moore]

Personification of the United Kingdom.

[Michelle Watson]

So he's saying that Englishmen think Italians are wily and suspicious.

[Count Fosco]

Set me down, if you please, as being no better than the rest of my race. I am a wily Italian and a suspicious Italian. You have thought so yourself, dear lady, have you not? Well, it is part of my wiliness and part of my suspicion to object to Madame Fosco being a witness to Lady Glyde's signature, when I am also a witness myself. There is not the shadow of a reason for his objection interposed, Sir Percival. I have explained to him that the law of England allows Madame Fosco to witness his signature as well as her husband. I admit it, resumed the count, the law of England says yes, but the.

[Faith Moore]

Conscience of Fosco says no. He spread out his fat fingers on the bosom of his blouse and bowed solemnly, as if he wished to introduce.

[Michelle Watson]

His conscience to us all in the.

[Faith Moore]

Character of an illustrious addition to the society.

[Count Fosco]

What this document, which Lady Glyde is about to sign may be, he continued, I neither know nor desire to know. I only say this circumstance may happen in the future which may oblige Percival or his representatives to appeal to the two witnesses. In which case it is certainly desirable that those witnesses should represent two opinions which are perfectly independent, the one of the other. This cannot be if my wife signs as well as myself, because we have but one opinion between us, and that opinion is mine.

[Faith Moore]

I will not have it cast in.

[Count Fosco]

My teeth at some future day that Madame Fosco acted under my coercion and was in plain fact, no witness at all. I speak in Percival's interest when I propose that my name shall appear as the nearest friend of the husband. And your name, Miss Halcombe, as the nearest friend of the wife. I am a Jesuit, if you please to think so. A splitter of straws, a man of trifles and crochets and scruples. But you will humor me, I hope in merciful consideration of my suspicious Italian character and my uneasy Italian conscience.

[Faith Moore]

He bowed again, stepped back a few paces, and withdrew his conscience from our society as politely as he had introduced it. The count's scruples might have been honourable and reasonable enough, but there was something in his manner of expressing them which increased my unwillingness to be concerned in the business of the signature. No consideration of less importance than my consideration for Laura would have induced me to consent to be a witness at all. One look, however, at her anxious face decided me to risk anything rather than desert her.

[Michelle Watson]

I will readily remain in the room.

[Faith Moore]

I said, and if I find no reason for starting any small scruples on my side, you may rely on me as a witness. Sir Percival looked at me sharply, as if he was about to say something, but at the same moment Madame Fosco attracted his attention by rising from her chair. She had caught her husband's eye and had evidently received her orders to leave the room.

[Count Fosco]

You needn't go, said Sir Percival.

[Faith Moore]

Madame Fosco looked for her orders again, got them again, said she would prefer leaving us to our business, and resolutely walked out. The count lit a cigarette, went back to the flowers in the window, and puffed little jets of smoke at the leaves in a state of the deepest anxiety about killing the insects. Meanwhile, Sir Percival unlocked a cupboard beneath one of the bookcases and produced from it a piece of parchment folded longwise many times over. He placed it on the table, opened the last fold only, and kept his hand on the rest. The last fold displayed a strip of blank parchment with little wafers stuck on it at certain places. Every line of the writing was hidden in the part which he still held folded up under his hand. Laura and I looked at each other. Her face was pale, but it showed no indecision and no fear. Sir Percival dipped a pen in ink and handed it to his wife.

[Count Fosco]

Sign your name there, he said, pointing.

[Faith Moore]

To the place you and Fosco are to sign afterwards.

[Count Fosco]

Ms. Halcombosite those two wafers. Come here, Fosco. Witnessing a signature is not to be done by mooning out of a window and smoking into the flowers.

[Faith Moore]

The count threw away his cigarette and joined us at the table with his hands carelessly thrust into the scarlet belt of his blouse and his eyes steadily fixed on Sir Percival's face. Laura, who was on the other side of her husband with the pen in her hand, looked at him too. He stood between them, holding the folded parchment down firmly on the table and glancing across to me as I sat opposite to him with such a sinister mixture of suspicion and embarrassment on his face that he looked more like a prisoner at the bar than a gentleman in his own house. Sign there, he repeated, turning suddenly on Laura and pointing once more to the.

[Michelle Watson]

Place on the parchment.

[Faith Moore]

So he's asking her to sign this.

[Michelle Watson]

Document without reading it, so she doesn't know what it is that she's going.

[Faith Moore]

To be agreeing to. What is it I am to sign? She asked quietly.

[Count Fosco]

I have no time to explain, he answered. The dog cart is at the door and I must go directly. Besides, if I had time, you wouldn't understand. It is a purely formal document, full of legal technicalities and all that sort of thing.

[Faith Moore]

Come, come, sign your name, and let.

[Count Fosco]

Us have done as soon as possible.

[Faith Moore]

I ought surely to know what I.

[Count Fosco]

Am signing, Sir Percival, before I write my name. Nonsense. What have women to do with business? I tell you again, you can't understand it.

[Faith Moore]

At any rate, let me try to understand it. Whenever Mr. Gilmore had any business for me to do, he always explained it first, and I always understood him.

[Count Fosco]

I dare say he did. He was your servant and obliged to explain. I am your husband and am not obliged.

[Faith Moore]

How much longer do you mean to keep me here?

[Count Fosco]

I tell you again, there is no time for reading anything. The dog cart is waiting at the door. Once for all, will you sign or will you not?

[Faith Moore]

She still had the pen in her hand, but she made no approach to signing her name with it. If my signature pledges me to anything, she said, surely I have some claim to know what that pledge is. He lifted up the parchment and struck.

[Michelle Watson]

It angrily on the table.

[Faith Moore]

Speak out, he said.

[Count Fosco]

You are always famous for telling the truth. Never mind, Miss Halcombe. Never mind, Fosco. Say in plain terms you distrust me.

[Faith Moore]

The count took one of his hands out of his belt and laid it on Sir Percival's shoulder. Sir Percival shook it off irritably. The count put it on again with unruffled composure.

[Count Fosco]

Control your unfortunate temper, Sir Percival, he said. Lady Glyde is right. Right? Cried Sir Percival. A wife right in distrusting her husband.

[Faith Moore]

It is unjust and cruel to accuse me of distrusting you, said Laura. Ask Marion if I am not justified in wanting to know what this writing requires of me before I sign it.

[Count Fosco]

I won't have any appeals made to Miss Halcombe, retorted Sir Percival. Miss Halcombe has nothing to do with the matter.

[Faith Moore]

I had not spoken hitherto, and I would much rather not have spoken now. But the expression of distress in Laura's face when she turned it towards me. And the insolent injustice of her husband's conduct left me no alternative than to give my opinion for her sake as.

[Michelle Watson]

Soon as I was asked for it. Excuse me, Sir Percival, I said, but.

[Faith Moore]

As one of the witnesses to the signature, I venture to think that I.

[Michelle Watson]

Have something to do with the matter.

[Faith Moore]

Laura's objection seems to me a perfectly fair one, and speaking for myself only, I cannot assume the responsibility of witnessing her signature unless she understands what the writing is which you wish her to sign.

[Count Fosco]

A cool declaration, upon my soul, cried Sir Percival. The next time you invite yourself to a man's house, Ms. Halcombe, I recommend.

[Faith Moore]

You not to repay his hospitality by taking his wife's side against him in.

[Count Fosco]

A manner that doesn't concern you.

[Faith Moore]

I started to my feet as suddenly as if he had struck me. If I had been a man, I would have knocked him down on the threshold of his own door and have left his house, never on any earthly consideration to enter it again. But I was only a woman, and I loved his wife so dearly. Thank God that faithful love helped me, and I sat down again without saying a word. She knew what I had suffered and what I had suppressed. She ran round to me with the tears streaming from her eyes.

[Michelle Watson]

Oh, Marian, she whispered softly, if my.

[Faith Moore]

Mother had been alive, she could have done no more for me.

[Count Fosco]

Come back and sign, cried Sir Percival.

[Michelle Watson]

From the other side of the table.

[Faith Moore]

Shall I? She asked in my ear. I will if you tell me no, I answered. The right and the truth are with you. Sign nothing unless you have read it first. Come back and sign, he reiterated in his loudest and angriest tones the count who had watched Laura and me with a close and silent attention, interposed for the second time.

[Count Fosco]

Percival, he said, I remember that I am in the presence of ladies. Be good enough, if you please, to remember it, too.

[Faith Moore]

Sir Percival turned on him, speechless with passion. The count's firm hand slowly tightened its grasp on his shoulder, and the count's steady voice quietly repeated, be good enough.

[Count Fosco]

If you please, to remember it too.

[Faith Moore]

They both looked at each other. Sir Percival slowly drew his shoulder from under the count's hand, slowly turned his face away from the count's eyes, doggedly looked down for a little while at the parchment on the table, and then spoke with the sullen submission of a tamed animal rather than the becoming resignation of a convinced man.

[Count Fosco]

I don't want to offend anybody, he said, but my wife's obstinacy is enough.

[Faith Moore]

To try the patience of a Saint.

[Count Fosco]

I have told her this is merely a formal document, and what more can she want?

[Michelle Watson]

You may say what you please, but.

[Count Fosco]

It is no part of a woman's duty to set her husband at defiance. Once more, Lady Glyde, and for the last time, will you sign or will you not?

[Faith Moore]

Laura returned to his side of the table and took up the pen again. I will sign with pleasure, she said, if you will only treat me as a responsible being. I care little what sacrifice is required of me if it will affect no one else and lead to no ill results.

[Count Fosco]

Who talked of a sacrifice being required of you?

[Michelle Watson]

He broke in with a half suppressed.

[Faith Moore]

Return of his former violence. I only meant, she resumed, that I would refuse no concession which I could honourably make. If I have a scruple about signing my name to an engagement of which I know nothing, why should you visit it on me so severely? It is rather hard, I think, to treat Count Fosco's scruples so much more indulgently than you have treated mine. This unfortunate, most natural reference to the Count's extraordinary power over her husband, indirect as it was, set Sir Percival's smouldering temper on fire again in an instant. Scruples, he repeated.

[Michelle Watson]

Your scruples.

[Faith Moore]

It is rather late in the day.

[Michelle Watson]

For you to be scrupulous.

[Count Fosco]

I should have thought you had got over all weakness of that sort when you made a virtue of necessity by marrying me.

[Faith Moore]

The instant he spoke those words, Laura threw down the pen, looked at him with an expression in her eyes which, throughout all my experience of her, I had never seen in them before, and turned her back on him in dead silence. The strong expression of the most open and the most bitter contempt was so entirely unlike herself, so utterly out of her character, that it silenced us all. There was something hidden beyond a doubt under the mere surface brutality of the words which her husband had just addressed to her. There was some lurking insult beneath them of which I was wholly ignorant, but which had left the mark of its profanation so plainly on her face that even a stranger might have seen it. The Count, who was no stranger, saw it as distinctly as I did. When I left my chair to join Laura, I heard him whisper under his breath to Sir Percival, you idiot. Laura walked before me to the door as I advanced, and at the same time her husband spoke to her once more.

[Count Fosco]

You positively refuse then to give me your signature?

[Faith Moore]

He said in the altered tone of a man who was conscious that he had let his own license of language seriously injure him after what you have just said to me, she replied firmly. I refuse my signature until I have read every line in that parchment, from the first word to the last. Come away, Marian. We have remained here long enough.

[Count Fosco]

One moment, interposed the count before Sir.

[Michelle Watson]

Percival could speak again.

[Count Fosco]

One moment, Lady Glyde. I implore you.

[Faith Moore]

Laura would have left the room without noticing him, but I stopped her. Don't make an enemy of the Count, I whispered. Whatever you do, don't make an enemy of the Count. She yielded to me. I closed the door again and we stood near it, waiting. Sir Percival sat down at the table with his elbow on the folded parchment and his head resting on his clenched fist. The Count stood between us, master of the dreadful position in which we were placed, as he was master of everything else. Lady Glyde, he said with a gentleness which seemed to address itself to our forlorn situation instead of to ourselves, pray.

[Count Fosco]

Pardon me if I venture to offer one suggestion. And pray believe that I speak out.

[Faith Moore]

Of my profound respect and my friendly.

[Count Fosco]

Regard for the mistress of this house.

[Faith Moore]

He turned sharply towards Sir Percival.

[Count Fosco]

Is it absolutely necessary, he asked, that this thing here under your elbow should be signed today? It is necessary to my plans and wishes, returned the other sulkily. But that consideration, as you may have noticed, has no influence with Lady Glyde.

[Faith Moore]

Answer my plain question plainly.

[Count Fosco]

Can the business of the signature be.

[Faith Moore]

Put off till to morrow?

[Count Fosco]

Yes or no? Yes. If you will have it so, then.

[Faith Moore]

What are you wasting your time for here? Let the signature wait till to morrow.

[Count Fosco]

Let it wait till you come back.

[Faith Moore]

Sir Percival looked up with a frown and an oath.

[Count Fosco]

You are taking a tone with me that I don't like, he said, a tone I won't bear from any man. I am advising you for your own.

[Faith Moore]

Good, returned the count with a smile of quiet contempt. Give yourself time.

[Count Fosco]

Give Lady Glyde time. Have you forgotten that your dog cart is waiting at the door? My tone surprises you, huh? I dare say it does.

[Faith Moore]

It is the tone of a man who can keep his temper. How many doses of good advice have.

[Count Fosco]

I given you in my time? More than you can count. Have I ever been wrong? I defy you to quote me an instance of it. Go, take your drive. The matter of the signature can wait till to morrow. Let it wait, and renew it when you come back.

[Faith Moore]

Sir Percival hesitated and looked at his watch. His anxiety about the secret journey which he was to take that day, revived by the Count's words, was now evidently disputing possession of his mind with his anxiety to obtain Laura's signature. He considered for a little while and then got up from his chair.

[Count Fosco]

It is easy to argue me down, he said, when I have no time to answer you. I will take your advice, Fosco. Not because I want it or believe in it, but because I can't stop here any longer.

[Faith Moore]

He paused and looked round darkly at his wife.

[Count Fosco]

If you don't give me your signature when I come back tomorrow.

[Faith Moore]

The rest was lost in the noise of his opening the bookcase cupboard again and locking up the parchment once more. He took his hat and gloves off the table and made for the door. Laura and I drew back to let him pass.

[Count Fosco]

Remember tomorrow, he said to his wife and went out.

[Faith Moore]

We waited to give him time to cross the hall and drive away. The count approached us while we were standing near the door.

[Count Fosco]

You have just seen Sir Percival at his worst, Ms. Halcombe, he said. As his old friend, I am sorry for him and ashamed of him. As his old friend, I promise you that he shall not break out to morrow in the same disgraceful manner in which he has broken out to day.

[Faith Moore]

Laura had taken my arm while he was speaking, and she pressed it significantly when he had done. It would have been a hard trial to any woman to stand by and see the office of apologist for her husband's misconduct quietly assumed by his male friend in her own house. And it was a trial to her. So all of this just highlights the fact that Laura really hasn't bonded with Sir Percival. It should be her explaining her husband's behavior because she's the one who should know him so well, not the Count. I thanked the count civilly and let her out. Yes, I thanked him, for I felt already with a sense of inexpressible helplessness and humiliation, that it was either his interest or his caprice to make sure of my continuing to reside at Blackwater Park. And I knew after Sir Percival's conduct to me that without the support of the Count's influence, I could not hope to remain there. So Marian can only stay with Laura.

[Michelle Watson]

If Sir Percival allows it, because this.

[Faith Moore]

Is his house, and Marian sees that if not for Count Fosco's intervention, Sir.

[Michelle Watson]

Percival would kick her out.

[Faith Moore]

His influence, the influence of all others that I dreaded most, was actually the one tie which now held me to Laura in the hour of her utmost need. We heard the wheels of the dog cart crashing on the gravel of the drive as we came into the hall. Sir Percival had started on his journey. Where is he going to Marian? Laura whispered. Every fresh thing he does Seems to terrify me about the future. Have you any suspicions? After what she had undergone that morning, I was unwilling to tell her my suspicions. How should I know his secrets?

[Michelle Watson]

I said evasively.

[Faith Moore]

I wonder if the housekeeper knows, she persisted. Certainly not, I replied. She must be quite as ignorant as we are. Laura shook her head doubtfully. Did you not hear from the housekeeper that there was a report of Anne Catherick having been seen in this neighbourhood? Don't you think he may have gone away to look for her? I would rather compose myself, Laura, by not thinking about it at all.

[Michelle Watson]

And after what has happened, you had better follow my example.

[Faith Moore]

Come into my room and rest and.

[Michelle Watson]

Quiet yourself a little.

[Faith Moore]

We sat down together close to the window and let the fragrant summer air breathe over our faces. I am ashamed to look at you, Marian, she said. After what you submitted to downstairs for my sake. Oh, my own love.

[Michelle Watson]

I am almost heartbroken when I think of it.

[Faith Moore]

But I will try to make it up to you. I will indeed. Hush, hush, I replied. Don't talk so. What is the trifling mortification of my pride compared to the dreadful sacrifice of your happiness? You heard what he said to me, she went on, quickly and vehemently. You heard the words, but you don't know what they meant. You don't know why. I threw down the pen and turned my back on him. She rose in sudden agitation and walked about the room. I have kept many things from your knowledge, Marian, for fear of distressing you and making you unhappy at the outset of our new lives. You don't know how he has used me. And yet you ought to know, for you saw how he used me to day. You heard him sneer at my presuming to be scrupulous. You heard him say I had made a virtue of necessity in marrying him. She sat down again, her face flushed deeply and her hands twisted and twined together in her lap.

[Michelle Watson]

I can't tell you about it now, she said.

[Faith Moore]

I shall burst out crying if I tell you now. Later, Marian, when I am more sure of myself. My poor head aches, darling. Aches, aches, aches. Where is your smelling bottle? Let me talk to you about yourself.

[Michelle Watson]

I wish I had given him my.

[Faith Moore]

Signature for your sake. Shall I give it to him to morrow? I would rather compromise myself than compromise you after your taking my part against him. He will lay all the blame on you if I refuse again. What shall we do? Oh, for a friend to help us and advise us.

[Michelle Watson]

A friend we could really trust.

[Faith Moore]

She sighed bitterly. I saw in her face that she was thinking of Hartright saw it the more plainly because her last words set me thinking of him too. In six months, only from her marriage we wanted the faithful service he had offered to us in his farewell words. How little I once thought that we should ever want it at all. We must do what we can to help ourselves, I said. Let us try to talk it over calmly, Laura. Let us do all in our power to decide for the best. Putting what she knew of her husband's embarrassments and what I had heard of his conversation with the lawyer. Together we arrived necessarily at the conclusion that the parchment in the library had been drawn up for the purpose of borrowing money and that Laura's signature was absolutely necessary to fit it for the attainment of Sir Percival's object. The second question concerning the nature of the legal contract by which the money was to be obtained and the degree of personal responsibility to which Laura might subject herself if she signed it in the dark involved considerations which lay far beyond any knowledge and experience that either of us possessed. So they don't know what ramifications it.

[Michelle Watson]

Will have on Laura legally if she signs this document without reading it.

[Faith Moore]

My own convictions led me to believe that the hidden contents of the parchment concealed a transaction of the meanest and the most fraudulent kind. I had not formed this conclusion in consequence of Sir Percival's refusal to shew the writing or to explain it. For that refusal might well have proceeded from his obstinate disposition and his domineering temper alone. My sole motive for distrusting his honesty sprang from the change which I had observed in his language and his manners at Blackwater Park Parka. Change which convinced me that he had been acting a part throughout the whole period of his probation at Limmeridge House. His elaborate delicacy, his ceremonious politeness which harmonized so agreeably with Mr. Gilmour's old fashioned notions, his modesty with Laura, his candour with me, his moderation with Mr. Fairlie. All these were the artifices of a mean, cunning and brutal man who had dropped his disguise when his practised duplicity had gained its end and had openly.

[Michelle Watson]

Shown himself in the library on that very day.

[Faith Moore]

So she's saying that she feels that Sir Percival is a bad guy and was only acting kind and polite because he wanted Laura to marry him. I say nothing of the grief which this discovery caused me on Laura's account for it is not to be expressed by any words of mine. I only refer to it at all because it decided me to oppose her signing the parchment, whatever the consequences might be unless she was first made acquainted with the contents.

[Count Fosco]

Sense.

[Faith Moore]

Under these circumstances, the one chance for us, when tomorrow came, was to be provided with an objection to giving the signature which might rest on sufficiently firm commercial or legal grounds to shake Sir Percival's resolution and to make him suspect that we two women understood the laws and obligations of business as well as himself.

[Michelle Watson]

So she's saying that the only way.

[Faith Moore]

They can get away with not signing.

[Michelle Watson]

The document without reading it first is.

[Faith Moore]

If they figure out some actual legal reason not to. After some pondering, I determined to write to the only honest man within reach whom we could trust to help us discreetly in our forlorn situation. That man was Mr. Gilmour's partner, Mr. Curll, who conducted the business now that our old friend had been obliged to withdraw from it and to leave London on account of his health. I explained to Laura that I had Mr. Gilmour's own authority for placing implicit confidence in his partner's integrity, discretion and accurate knowledge of all her affairs. And with her full approval, I sat down at once to write the letter. I began by stating our position to.

[Michelle Watson]

Mr. Curll exactly as it was, and.

[Faith Moore]

Then asked for his advice in return. Expressed in plain, downright terms which he could comprehend without any danger of misinterpretations and mistakes, my letter was as short as I could possibly make it and was, I hope, unencumbered by needless apologies and needless details. Just as I was about to put the address on the envelope, an obstacle was discovered by Laura which in the effort and preoccupation of writing had escaped my mind altogether. How are we to get the answer in time? She asked. Your letter will not be delivered in London before to morrow morning and the post will not bring the reply here till the morning after.

[Michelle Watson]

The only way of overcoming this difficulty.

[Faith Moore]

Was to have the answer brought to us from the lawyer's office by a special messenger. I wrote a postscript to that effect, begging that the messenger might be dispatched with the Reply by the 11 o'clock morning train which would bring him to our station at 20 minutes past 1 and so enable him to reach Blackwater park by 2 o'clock at the latest. He was to be directed to ask for me to answer no questions addressed to him by anyone else and to deliver his letter into no hands but mine in case Sir Percival should come.

[Michelle Watson]

Back to Morrow before 2:00, I said.

[Faith Moore]

To Laura, the wisest plan for you to adopt is to be out in the grounds all the morning with your Book or your work and not to appear at the house till the messenger has had time to arrive with the letter. I will wait here for him all the morning to guard against any misadventures or mistakes. By following this arrangement, I hope and believe we shall avoid being taken by surprise. Let us go down to the drawing room now. We may excite suspicion if we remain shut up together too long. So Marian is writing to Mr. Gilmour's replacement and asking that he send a reply with a special messenger who will instructions to deliver the letter to no one other than Marian. And this way they'll get the response before it's time for Laura to have.

[Count Fosco]

To sign the document.

[Faith Moore]

Suspicion, she repeated. Whose suspicion can we excite now that Sir Percival has left the house?

[Count Fosco]

Do you mean Count Fosco?

[Faith Moore]

Perhaps? I do. Laura, you are beginning to dislike him as much as I do, Marian. No, not to dislike him. Dislike is always more or less associated with contempt. I can see nothing in the Count to despise.

[Michelle Watson]

You are not afraid of him, are you?

[Faith Moore]

Perhaps I am a little afraid of him after his interference in our favor today.

[Michelle Watson]

Yes, I am more afraid of his.

[Faith Moore]

Interference than I am of Sir Percival's violence. Remember what I said to you in the library. Whatever you do, Laura, don't make an enemy of the Count. We went downstairs. Laura entered the drawing room while I proceeded across the hall with my letter in my hand to put it into the post bag which hung against the wall opposite to me. The house door was open, and as I crossed past it I saw Count Fosco and his wife standing talking together on the steps outside with their faces turned towards me. The Countess came into the hall rather hastily and asked if I had leisure.

[Michelle Watson]

Enough for five minutes private conversation. Feeling a little surprised by such an.

[Faith Moore]

Appeal from such a person, I put my letter into the bag and replied.

[Michelle Watson]

That I was quite at her disposal.

[Faith Moore]

She took my arm with unaccustomed friendliness and familiarity and instead of leading me into an empty room, drew me out with her to the belt of turf which surrounded the large fish pond. As we passed the Count on the steps, he bowed and smiled and then went at once into the house, pushing the hall door to after him, but not actually closing it. The Countess walked me gently round the fish pond. I expected to be made the depositary of some extraordinary confidence. And I was astonished to find that Madame Fosco's communication for my private ear was nothing more than a polite assurance of her sympathy for me after what had happened in the library. Her husband had told her of all that had passed and of the insolent manner in which Sir Percival had spoken to me. This information had so shocked and distressed her on my account and on Laura's, that she had made up her mind.

[Michelle Watson]

If anything of the sort happened, again.

[Faith Moore]

To mark her sense of Sir Percival's outrageous conduct by leaving the house, the count had approved of her idea, and she now hoped that I approved of it too. So Madame Fosco is saying that if Sir Percival behaves the way he behaved earlier over the document, she's going to leave the house in protest. I thought this a very strange proceeding on the part of such a remarkably.

[Michelle Watson]

Reserved woman as Madame Fosco, Especially after.

[Faith Moore]

The interchange of sharp speeches which had passed between us during the conversation in the boat house on that very morning.

[Count Fosco]

Morning.

[Faith Moore]

However, it was my plain duty to meet a polite and friendly advance on the part of one of my elders. With a polite and friendly reply. I answered the countess accordingly in her own tone. And then, thinking we had said all that was necessary on either side, made an attempt to get back to the house. But Madame Fosco seemed resolved not to part with me, and to my unspeakable amazement resolved also to talk. Hitherto the most silent of women. She now persecuted me with fluent conventionality. Studies on the subject of married life, on the subject of Sir Percival and Laura, on the subject of her own happiness, and on the subject of the late Mr. Fairlie's conduct to her in.

[Michelle Watson]

The matter of her legacy, and on half a dozen other subjects besides.

[Faith Moore]

Until she had detained me walking round and round the fish pond for more than half an hour and had quite wearied me out.

[Michelle Watson]

Whether she discovered this or not, I cannot say.

[Faith Moore]

But she stopped as abruptly as she had begun, looked towards the house door, resumed her icy manner in a moment, and dropped my arm of her own accord before I could think of an excuse for accomplishing my own release from her. As I pushed open the door and entered the hall, I found myself suddenly face to face with the count again. He was just putting a letter into the post bag. After he had dropped it in and had closed the bag, he asked me where I had left Madame Fosco. I told him, and he went out at the hall door immediately to join his wife. His manner when he spoke to me was so unusually quiet and subdued that I turned and looked after him, wondering if he were ill or out of spirits. Why, my next proceeding was to go straight up to the post bag and take out my own letter and look at it again with a vague distrust on me and why the looking at it for the second time instantly suggested the idea to my mind of sealing the envelope for its greater security are mysteries which are either too deep or too shallow for me to fathom.

[Michelle Watson]

Women, as everybody knows, constantly act on.

[Faith Moore]

Impulses which they cannot explain even to.

[Michelle Watson]

Themselves, and I can only suppose that.

[Faith Moore]

One of those impulses was the hidden cause of my unaccountable conduct on this occasion. Whatever influence animated me, I found cause.

[Michelle Watson]

To congratulate myself on having obeyed it.

[Faith Moore]

As soon as I prepared to seal the letter in my own room, I had originally closed the envelope in the usual way, by moistening the adhesive point and pressing it on the paper beneath, and when I now tried it with my finger after a lapse of full.

[Michelle Watson]

3/4 of an hour, the envelope opened.

[Faith Moore]

On the instant without sticking or tearing.

[Michelle Watson]

Perhaps I had fastened it insufficiently, perhaps there might have been some defect in.

[Faith Moore]

The adhesive gum, or perhaps no, it.

[Michelle Watson]

Is quite revolting enough to feel that.

[Faith Moore]

Third conjecture stirring in my mind. I would rather not see it confronting me in plain black and white.

[Michelle Watson]

Meaning what if someone else has already opened the letter and read it?

[Faith Moore]

I almost dread tomorrow. So much depends on my discretion and self control. There are two precautions at all events which I am sure not to forget. I must be careful to keep up friendly appearances with the Count, and I must be well on my guard when the messenger from the office comes here with the answer to my letter. Thank you so much for listening. I'd love to know what you thought of the chapters. Is there anything you'd like me to clarify? Did something particularly interest you? Please go to my website faithkmoore.com click on contact and send me your questions and thoughts. Or you can click on the link in the Show Notes to contact me. I'll feature one or two of your entries at the start of the next episode. Speaking of links, don't forget to take a look at the other links in the Show Notes. You can learn more about me, check out our merch store, or pick up one of my books. Before I go, I'd like to ask a quick favor. This is an independent podcast. It's produced, recorded and marketed by me, so I need your help. Spread the word about the show by posting about it on social media or texting a link to your friends. Subscribe tap those five stars and leave a positive review wherever you're listening. If you are able to support the show financially, there's a link in the Show Notes to make a donation. I would really, really appreciate it. Alright, everyone, story time is over. To be continued.