Still Among Crows explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Deception and Truth

  The McCormacks' plot to compromise Lettice is built on deception. Lilla's scheme relies on creating a false appearance of scandal to force a marriage.

• Social Class and Status

  Aunt Rosamond's concern about Lettice marrying a 'country doctor's wife or a Mrs. McCormack' highlights the importance of social standing and the desire for a title like Countess Lochiel.

• Freedom and Constraint

  Lettice is constrained by her aunts' surveillance and later physically imprisoned by the McCormacks. Her desire for freedom is contrasted with the social constraints placed upon her.

Characters to notice

• Lettice Tremarten

  Lettice is enjoying the countryside but is unaware of the McCormacks' plot against her. She is described as headstrong and rebellious against her aunts' surveillance.

• Aunt Rosamond

  Aunt Rosamond is determined to thwart the McCormacks' plans. She schemes to push Lettice toward Lord Lochiel and plans to take her abroad to separate her from her suitors.

• Captain Ivie McCormack

  Captain Ivie is bent on marrying Lettice but is reluctant about the scheming required. He is haunted by a past affair with Maggie Forbes, a minister's daughter.

• Lilla McCormack

  Lilla is the mastermind behind the plot to compromise Lettice. She is calculating and manipulative, insisting that Lettice must be compromised to force a marriage.

• Lord Lochiel

  Lord Lochiel is a visitor at the neighboring estate. His attentions to Lettice have been marked, and Aunt Rosamond hopes he will propose at the upcoming archery fête.

Key passages

• “The London season has ended, another act in life’s drama has been played out, and the actors, wearied with failure or dazzled with success, as the case may be, have one and all taken flight to hide their disappointment or freshen their laurels by Scottish hillsides or Swiss lakes, or any other of Nature’s strongholds that wealth or fashion may dictate.”

  The social season in London is over, and everyone has left the city to recover from their successes or failures, retreating to places like Scotland or Switzerland.

  This sets the scene for the chapter, explaining why the characters are in Perthshire.

• “What consternation there will be in the camp when we put in our first appearance at Rosneath, and those wise old ladies find themselves out-generalled by a young tactician like me!”

  The aunts will be shocked when we show up at Rosneath, having been outsmarted by my clever planning.

  Lilla reveals her intention to outmaneuver the aunts.

• “It was an old story: the patient got well and the nurse fell sick, but with another complaint, and then there had followed a little love episode (one among a thousand in the captain’s life) which he was pleased to declare was now “all over and done with.””

  The captain recovered from his injury while the nurse, Maggie Forbes, fell in love with him, a common occurrence in his life that he now dismisses.

  This reveals Captain Ivie's past with Maggie Forbes and his callous attitude toward it.

• ““If Lettice accepts him,” argued the lady—and what girl could be proof against a coronet?—“I shall the next day carry her off to Paris before she has had time to alter her mind, and also to order her trousseau, for there shall be no long engagement, I’ll take care of that.”

  Aunt Rosamond plans that if Lettice accepts Lord Lochiel's proposal, she will immediately take her to Paris to prepare for the wedding, preventing any change of heart.

  This shows Aunt Rosamond's determination to secure a titled match for Lettice.

• ““You idiot!” said Lilla in low angry tones. “You haven’t the sense of a tomtit even, I declare. Don’t you see that the girl must be compromised, or else it will fall through?”

  Lilla angrily tells her brother that Lettice must be compromised for the plan to succeed, as he is too foolish to understand.

  This reveals the core of the McCormacks' scheme.