Lost Man’s Lane · Chapter
XVI: Loreen explained
Amelia Butterworth continues her investigation into the Knollys household, probing Loreen about the phantom coach and the family's secrets.
What happens
Amelia Butterworth continues her investigation into the Knollys household, probing Loreen about the phantom coach and the family's secrets. She becomes convinced that the sisters are hiding a prisoner—likely Silly Rufus—in the house, and she contemplates whether to summon the police or rely on her own wits. After a tense conversation, Loreen reluctantly agrees to let her explore the drawing-room, but Amelia suspects she is being steered away from the true mystery.
Themes in this chapter
Detection and Investigation
Amelia systematically gathers clues, tests theories, and decides to rely on her own observation rather than summoning the police prematurely.
Secrecy and Deception
Loreen and Lucetta hide the true nature of their household activities; Amelia feigns interest in ghost stories to probe for information.
Family Loyalty and Sacrifice
Amelia theorizes that the sisters may be hiding a prisoner to protect William, noting that love for an unworthy relative can drive clear-minded women to ruin.
Characters to notice
- Lucetta
Lucetta is distracted and abstracted at dinner, preoccupied by her lover's visit; she has not questioned Amelia's early return.
- Amelia Butterworth
Amelia probes Loreen about the phantom coach and the family's secrets, and she theorizes that the sisters are hiding a prisoner—likely Silly Rufus—in the house.
- Miss Knollys
Loreen is guarded and evasive; she is startled by Amelia's mention of the phantom coach and reluctantly agrees to let Amelia explore the drawing-room.
- William Knollys
William is boorish at dinner until a warning glance from Loreen silences him; his earlier rude question about 'the old girl' reinforces Amelia's suspicions.
- Mr. Gryce
Mr. Gryce is referenced as the source of the whistle Amelia wears around her neck and as the one who chose her for this duty.
- Mother Jane
Amelia briefly considers the theory that old Mother Jane might be connected to the disappearances in the lane.
Key passages
“To shield him, to hide perhaps his deformity of soul from the world, even such gentle and gracious women as these have been known to enter into acts which to an unprejudiced eye and an unbiased conscience would seem little short of fiendish.”
Amelia believes that the sisters might commit terrible acts to protect William from public shame.
Reflects Amelia's growing suspicion that the sisters are complicit in hiding a prisoner.
“The simplest, surest, but least satisfactory to one of my nature was to summon the police and have the house thoroughly searched, but this involved, in case I had been deceived by appearances—as was possible even to a woman of my experience and discrimination—a scandal and an opprobrium which I would be the last to inflict upon Althea’s children, unless justice to the rest of the world demanded it.”
Amelia considers calling the police but hesitates because a false alarm would disgrace the family.
Highlights Amelia's internal conflict between justice and compassion.
“I am sorry, Miss Butterworth, to deny you this gratification, but the condition of the rooms and the unhappy excitement into which we have been thrown by the unfortunate visit paid to Lucetta by a gentleman to whom she is only too much attached, make it quite impossible for me to consider any such undertaking today.”
Loreen refuses Amelia's request to explore the house, citing Lucetta's emotional state after her lover's visit.
Shows Loreen's evasiveness and the sisters' attempt to control Amelia's movements.
