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"And pinned it carefully in the form of a circle."
John McLenan
28 January 1859
11.3 cm high by 8.8 cm wide (4 ⅜ by 3 ½ inches), framed, p. 53; p. 72 in the 1861 volume.
Ninth regular illustration for Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (1860).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"And pinned it carefully in the form of a circle." — staff artist John McLenan's tenth composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 10, published on 28 January 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, "The Story continued by Marian Halcombe, in Extracts from her Diary," 72 in the 1861 volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
As she spoke she went to a side-table near the window, on which her sketching materials were placed, gathered them together carefully, and put them in a drawer of her cabinet. She locked the drawer and brought the key to me.
“I must part from everything that reminds me of him,” she said. “Keep the key wherever you please — I shall never want it again.”
Before I could say a word she had turned away to her book-case, and had taken from it the album that contained Walter Hartright’s drawings. She hesitated for a moment, holding the little volume fondly in her hands — then lifted it to her lips and kissed it.
“Oh, Laura! Laura!” I said, not angrily, not reprovingly — with nothing but sorrow in my voice, and nothing but sorrow in my heart.
“It is the last time, Marian,” she pleaded. “I am bidding it good-bye for ever.”
She laid the book on the table and drew out the comb that fastened her hair. It fell, in its matchless beauty, over her back and shoulders, and dropped round her, far below her waist. She separated one long, thin lock from the rest, cut it off, and pinned it carefully, in the form of a circle, on the first blank page of the album. The moment it was fastened she closed the volume hurriedly, and placed it in my hands. ["The Story continued by Marian Halcombe, in Extracts from her Diary," Chapter I, "9th," p. 53; pp. 72-73 in the 1861 volume edition]
In this second full-sized, captioned plate, Laura follows through on her intention to tell Glyde about her attachment to another. However, since he refuses to cancel their engagement, she will honour her promise to her father and marry him. She must put away her mementos of her time with Walter, but determines to wrap a lock of her hair in an a album of Walter Hartright’s drawings. The album Laura entrusts to Marian, who promises to see that Walter will receive it “should she die first.” The scene prepares readers for Laura’s acquiescing in Sir Percival’s request for her to name the day of their marriage: the end of December. Marian resolves to take Laura away from Limmeridge to visit friends in Yorkshire, and escape temporarily the unhappy associations of Mr. Frederick Fairlie’s house. For his part, a self-satisfied Glyde leaves for his own great house in Hampshire to make it ready to receive his young bride after their Italian honeymoon. Meanwhile, through Miss Halcombe’s connections, Walter receives a position on an archaeological expedition to Honduras, and sails from England.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1861 (first printing, 15 August 1860; reissued in single-column format in 1902, 548 pages).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vols. III-IV (16 November 1859 through 8 September 1860).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert. London: Minerva, 2006.
Peters, Catherine. "Chapter Twelve: The Woman in White (1859-1860)." The King of the Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. London: Minerva Press, 1992. Pp. 205-225.
Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. Pp. 44-46.
Created 7 July 2024