Between the Scenes: Progress of the Story Through the Post explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Family and Betrayal

  The sisters face the dissolution of their family home and the betrayal of servants who leave without loyalty, while Norah staunchly defends Magdalen against Mr. Pendril's suspicions.

• Inheritance and Law

  Magdalen's obsessive copying of their father's will and her creation of a silk bag to keep the extracts close highlight the centrality of inheritance and legal documents to the plot.

• Identity and Disguise

  Magdalen's uncharacteristic behavior—guarding a trivial card and staying awake all night—hints at a hidden resolve and the beginnings of a disguised identity.

Characters to notice

• Norah Vanstone

  Writes to Mr. Pendril from Westmoreland House, Kensington, detailing the events after his departure and defending Magdalen's character.

• Magdalen Vanstone

  Shows erratic behavior: fiercely preserving a worthless actor's card, staying awake all night to copy extracts from her father's will into a silk bag, and suffering violent hysterics after Frank Clare's farewell visit.

• Mr. Pendril

  The recipient of Norah's letter; she disagrees with his negative opinion of Magdalen and seeks to change it.

• Frank Clare

  Visits Magdalen to take his leave; after a private interview, she falls into hysterics and Norah pushes him out of the room.

• Miss Garth

  Helps the sisters pack and cares for Magdalen after her hysterics; also receives a letter of condolence from Captain Wragge.

• Captain Wragge

  Sends a letter of condolence to Miss Garth, claiming a family connection and inquiring about the reading of the will; Norah dismisses him as unworthy of notice.

Key passages

• “We each tried at first to pack up in our own rooms—but the loneliness was more than we could bear. We carried all our possessions downstairs, and heaped them on the large dining-table, and so made our preparations together in the same room.”

  The sisters found packing alone too isolating, so they brought everything to the dining table and worked together.

  Norah describes the emotional difficulty of their last evening at Combe-Raven.

• “She took it up, looked at it, and immediately declared that she would not have had this perfectly worthless thing destroyed for the world. She was almost angry with me for having thrown it away; almost angry with Miss Garth for asking what she could possibly want with it!”

  Magdalen fiercely insisted on keeping a worthless actor's card, becoming angry when Norah tried to discard it.

  Norah cites this as evidence of Magdalen's disturbed state of mind.

• “‘I have copied for myself,’ was her answer, ‘all that he says of us in the will, and all that he says in the letter.’ She told me this, and took from her bosom a tiny white silk bag, which she had made in the night, and in which she had put the extracts, so as to keep them always about her.”

  Magdalen had sewn a small silk bag overnight to hold her own copies of their father's will and letter, keeping them close to her heart.

  This reveals Magdalen's secretive and determined nature regarding their inheritance.

• “I instantly ran into the room, and found Magdalen on the sofa in violent hysterics, and Frank standing staring at her, with a lowering, angry face, biting his nails.”

  Norah found Magdalen in a fit of hysterics while Frank Clare watched with a sullen expression.

  The aftermath of Frank's farewell visit leads to a dramatic confrontation.

• “I felt so indignant—without knowing plainly why, for I was ignorant, of course, of what had passed at the interview—that I took Mr. Francis Clare by the shoulders and pushed him out of the room.”

  Norah, though unaware of what had been said, was so angry that she physically pushed Frank out of the room.

  Norah admits to unladylike behavior but justifies it by the provocation.