Lost Man’s Lane · Chapter
The Third Night explained
Amelia Butterworth, suspecting a secret burial, stays awake and observes the household carrying a body through the hall.
What happens
Amelia Butterworth, suspecting a secret burial, stays awake and observes the household carrying a body through the hall. She follows the procession to the Flower Parlor, where she witnesses the lowering of a coffin into a grave dug in the cellar. Overcome with horror, she retreats to her room without alerting the police.
Themes in this chapter
Secrecy and Deception
The household conspires to secretly bury a body in the cellar, hiding the crime from the outside world.
Family Loyalty and Sacrifice
Lucetta and Miss Knollys participate in covering up William's actions, showing loyalty to family at great moral cost.
Justice and Morality
Miss Butterworth grapples with whether to report the crime, ultimately choosing silence over immediate justice.
Characters to notice
- Amelia Butterworth
Narrator and observer; she devises a plan to witness the night's events and follows the funeral procession.
- Lucetta
Shows momentary affection toward Miss Butterworth; later seen among the bearers, weeping as the coffin is lowered.
- Miss Knollys
Commands silence during the procession; one of the six bearers.
- William Knollys
Participates in carrying the body; his stolid tones are heard.
- Hannah
In the kitchen with Mother Jane; later part of the funeral party.
- Mother Jane
Seen in the kitchen late at night; joins the six bearers.
Key passages
“I made up my mind that no locked door should interfere with my opportunity of doing so.”
I resolved that no locked door would prevent me from witnessing the event.
Miss Butterworth's determination to uncover the truth.
“I heard them take the forward course from the foot of the stairs to what, to my straining ear, seemed to be the entrance to the dining-room corridor.”
I heard them move from the bottom of the stairs toward what I thought was the dining-room hallway.
Amelia tracks the procession by sound.
“A long square hole in the floor, lately sawed, provided an opening through which the plain plank coffin, of which I now caught sight, was to be lowered into the cellar and so into the grave which had doubtless been dug there.”
A freshly cut square hole in the floor allowed the simple wooden coffin to be lowered into the cellar and into a grave dug beneath.
The secret burial method is revealed.