# Conjuror Trendle explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Thomas Hardy.

## What happens

Rhoda Brook and Gertrude Lodge visit Conjuror Trendle to seek a cure for Gertrude's ailing arm. Trendle reveals that the affliction is the work of an enemy and performs a divination with an egg in water, which deeply unsettles Gertrude. Rhoda senses a shift in power and triumph, while rumors spread that Rhoda has 'overlooked' Gertrude. By spring, Rhoda and her son disappear from Holmstoke.

## Themes in this chapter

### Deception and Secrecy

The visit to the conjuror is shrouded in secrecy; Gertrude refuses to disclose what she saw, and Rhoda keeps her own counsel about the incubus.

### Isolation and Longing

Rhoda's growing sadness and eventual disappearance underscore her isolation, while Gertrude's physical affliction mirrors her emotional distance.

## Character check-ins

### Rhoda Brook

Accompanies Gertrude to the conjuror, feels a strange fascination and later a sense of triumph; her face grows sadder and she eventually disappears from the neighborhood.

### Gertrude Lodge

Seeks a cure for her afflicted arm; becomes pale and rigid after the divination, and her manner grows constrained.

### Cornelius

The conjuror Trendle, a dealer in furze and turf, who performs the egg divination and hints at an enemy's work.

## Key lines

> By the next afternoon Rhoda would have done anything to escape this inquiry. But she had promised to go.

By the following afternoon, Rhoda wished she could avoid the visit, but she felt bound by her promise.

_Rhoda's reluctance and sense of obligation are highlighted._

> Medicine can’t cure it,” he said promptly. “ ’Tis the work of an enemy.”

He declared that no medicine could heal the arm; it was caused by an adversary.

_The conjuror attributes Gertrude's condition to supernatural malice._

> For the first time a sense of triumph possessed her, and she did not altogether deplore that the young thing at her side should learn that their lives had been antagonized by other influences than their own.

Rhoda felt a newfound triumph, not entirely sorry that Gertrude now understood their conflict was driven by forces beyond themselves.

_Rhoda's internal shift from fear to a kind of vindication._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/v-conjuror-trendle
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_53_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters