# The Lodger — Chapters explained

> Chapter companions for The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes.

- [Epigraph](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/epigraph.md): The chapter opens with a biblical epigraph from Psalm 88:18, foreshadowing themes of isolation, loss, and abandonment.
- [The Lodger](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/the-lodger.md): The Buntings, facing financial ruin, take in a mysterious lodger named Mr. Sleuth, whose peculiar habits and nighttime wanderings soon arouse suspicion. Meanwhile, a series of murders by a figure known as 'The Avenger' t
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/i.md): Mr. and Mrs. Bunting sit in their carefully maintained sitting-room, which outwardly projects an image of respectability and comfort. In reality, they are on the brink of financial ruin, having sold or pawned most of the
- [The Arrival of the Lodger](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/ii.md): Mrs. Bunting, nervous and in the dark, answers a hesitant double knock at the door. She finds a tall, gaunt man in an Inverness cape and top hat, who introduces himself as Mr. Sleuth and seeks lodgings. Despite initial m
- [Chapter III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/iii.md): Mrs. Bunting attends to the lodger's peculiar requests, including turning pictures to the wall and borrowing a Bible. She recalls a similar incident from her youth, which reassures her. Mr. Sleuth reads aloud from the Bi
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/iv.md): Mrs. Bunting wakes up feeling relieved and hopeful thanks to the arrival of the new lodger, Mr. Sleuth, who pays two guineas a week. She goes out to buy him necessities, including razors, and hears unsettling details abo
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/v.md): Mrs. Bunting reflects on the quiet, pleasant routine of life with Mr. Sleuth, noting his eccentricities—his preference for being waited on only by her, his use of Cruden's Concordance and the Bible, his distrust of women
- [Chapter VI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/vi.md): Mrs. Bunting struggles with anxiety and denial about the lodger's suspicious behavior while receiving news that her stepdaughter Daisy is coming to stay. The chapter explores her internal conflict, her irritation with Bu
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/vii.md): Daisy arrives in London amid news of two more Avenger murders. Mrs. Bunting suffers a hysterical episode upon hearing the cries of news vendors, but recovers when the lodger rings his bell. She insists on serving Mr. Sle
- [The Black Museum](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/ix.md): Daisy Bunting visits New Scotland Yard with her father and Joe Chandler, touring the Fingerprint Room and the Black Museum. The exhibits of murder weapons and death masks unsettle Daisy, while Bunting becomes fascinated 
- [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/x.md): Mrs. Bunting takes advantage of the lodger's absence to search his room, discovering a hidden bag in the chiffonnier and accidentally spilling red ink. She confesses the accident to Mr. Sleuth, who reacts with initial al
- [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xi.md): Nine days after the double murder, Joe Chandler visits the Buntings. Daisy reads aloud newspaper letters about The Avenger, including a theory comparing the killer to Jekyll and Hyde and suggesting he is a gentleman from
- [XII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xii.md): Mrs. Bunting insists that Daisy must visit her Aunt Margaret in Belgrave Square, despite Daisy's strong objections and Bunting's attempts to intervene. The argument reveals underlying tensions about money, duty, and Dais
- [Chapter XIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xiii.md): Mrs. Bunting struggles with her growing suspicion that Mr. Sleuth is The Avenger, torn between her duty to society and her protective attachment to him. She listens anxiously for his movements, and when he insists on goi
- [XIV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xiv.md): Bunting expresses relief at the lodger's return and worries about his nighttime wanderings, while Mrs. Bunting grows increasingly uneasy. She secretly listens to Mr. Sleuth's movements and is startled when he unexpectedl
- [XV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xv.md): Mrs. Bunting tries to stay awake to observe the lodger's nighttime activities but falls asleep. She wakes to a strange acrid smell and hears him moving about. The next morning, news of another Avenger murder in the Edgwa
- [Chapter XVI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xvi.md): Mr. Bunting's restlessness and guilt over the recent murder near their home contrasts with Mrs. Bunting's growing terror and suspicion of the lodger. She bolts herself in the kitchen, haunted by an invisible presence, an
- [XVII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xvii.md): Mrs. Bunting wakes early and energetically cleans the house, ignoring Bunting's protests. She shows an unusual interest in the newspaper's coverage of the Avenger murders, particularly a Special Investigator's column abo
- [XVIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xviii.md): Mrs. Bunting attends the inquest on one of The Avenger's victims, recalling a previous inquest from her past. She deceives her husband about her destination, driven by a secret, morbid curiosity to hear descriptions of t
- [XIX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xix.md): Mrs. Bunting attends the Avenger inquest at the Coroner's Court, observing the witnesses, the jury, and the coroner. She listens to various testimonies, including those of women who claim to have seen the murderer, and f
- [Chapter XX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xx.md): After attending the Avenger inquest, Mrs. Bunting returns home exhausted and haunted by visions of the victims. She lies to her husband about seeing the doctor, then tends to Mr. Sleuth's supper. The lodger seems lonely 
- [XXI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xxi.md): On a bitterly cold night, Bunting returns home from a job where he received a generous tip of a sovereign. He spots the lodger, Mr. Sleuth, walking ahead and attempts to catch up. When Bunting finally touches the lodger'
- [XXII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xxii.md): Mrs. Bunting learns from Joe Chandler that the police are investigating a new Avenger murder, with a clue involving a gentleman who paid for milk with a sovereign at 'The Hammer and Tongs' pub. She becomes increasingly a
- [XXIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xxiii.md): Mrs. Bunting tends to the lodger, who is unwell and refuses supper. Daisy and Joe Chandler joke about the lodger's Bible-reading, but Mrs. Bunting rebukes them. Later, Joe returns in disguise after investigating a lead, 
- [Chapter XXIV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xxiv.md): Bunting is tormented by fear and indecision about the lodger's guilt, torn between his suspicion and his dread of involving the police, which he believes would ruin his and Ellen's future. Joe Chandler visits and, to Bun
- [XXV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xxv.md): On Daisy's eighteenth birthday, she receives a silver watch from her father. Bunting, increasingly paranoid and fearful, slips out to buy tobacco and encounters his wife Ellen outside a greengrocer's, realizing they both
- [XXVI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xxvi.md): At Madame Tussaud's, Mrs. Bunting, Daisy, and Mr. Sleuth visit the Chamber of Horrors. Mr. Sleuth overhears Sir John Burney, the Police Commissioner, reveal that the Avenger is a known escaped lunatic from an asylum, cau
- [XXVII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_lodger_se/chapters/xxvii.md): After the lodger's sudden disappearance at Madame Tussaud's, the Buntings grapple with the truth about Mr. Sleuth's madness. Mrs. Bunting reveals to her husband that the lodger is a religious maniac and homicidal lunatic

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