Short Fiction · Chapter
Dame the Third explained
The Marchioness of Stonehenge tells the story of Lady Caroline, a noblewoman who secretly marries a humble assistant steward, but after his sudden death, she persuades his former sweetheart Milly to claim she was his secret wife.
What happens
The Marchioness of Stonehenge tells the story of Lady Caroline, a noblewoman who secretly marries a humble assistant steward, but after his sudden death, she persuades his former sweetheart Milly to claim she was his secret wife. Milly embraces the role, but when Lady Caroline later demands the truth to protect her own reputation, Milly refuses to give up her beloved in death.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Secrecy
Lady Caroline and her lover marry in secret, and later she orchestrates a false confession by Milly to hide her own identity.
Sacrifice and Duty
Milly sacrifices her own truth to protect Lady Caroline's reputation, and later struggles with the duty to relinquish her assumed widowhood.
Gender Roles and Women's Agency
Both Lady Caroline and Milly navigate limited agency within rigid social hierarchies, using secrecy and deception to assert their desires.
Characters to notice
- Caroline
Lady Caroline, the Marchioness of Stonehenge, secretly marries the assistant steward and later forces Milly to pose as his widow.
- Milly Richards
Milly, the woodman's daughter, is persuaded by Lady Caroline to claim she was the secret wife of the deceased assistant steward, and grows attached to the role.
Key passages
“I would have you know, then, that a great many years ago there lived in a classical mansion with which I used to be familiar, standing not a hundred miles from the city of Melchester, a lady whose personal charms were so rare and unparalleled that she was courted, flattered, and spoilt by almost all the young noblemen and gentlemen in that part of Wessex.”
Long ago, near Melchester, a beautiful lady lived in a grand house and was adored by many noblemen.
Introduces the setting and the protagonist's initial social success.
“She perversely and passionately centred her affection on quite a plain-looking young man of humble birth and no position at all; though it is true that he was gentle and delicate in nature, of good address, and guileless heart.”
She fell in love with a modest, kind-hearted young man of low social status.
Highlights the class-crossing romance central to the chapter.
“They resolved upon a third course, possessing neither of the disadvantages of these two: to wed secretly, and live on in outward appearance the same as before.”
They decided to marry in secret while maintaining their public roles.
Describes the couple's plan to avoid social scandal.
“Milly shivered, and bowed her head, saying, 'I feel as if I had become a corpse's bride!'”
Milly trembled and felt she had married a dead man.
Captures Milly's emotional reaction to the deception.
“A strange light, as of pain, shot from the Lady Caroline's eye, as if for the first time she begrudged to the young girl the position she had been at such pains to transfer to her; it showed that a slumbering affection for her husband still had life in Lady Caroline, obscured and stifled as it was by social considerations.”
Lady Caroline felt a pang of jealousy seeing Milly mourn the man she herself had loved, revealing her lingering feelings.
Reveals Lady Caroline's internal conflict between love and social status.