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"Not now," she said; "we are not alone — we are watched."
John McLenan
24 March 1860
11.4 cm high by 8.9 cm wide (4 ½ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted, p. 181.
Eighteenth regular illustration for Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (1860).
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"Not now," she said; "we are not alone — we are watched." — staff artist John McLenan's eighteenth regular composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 18, published on 21 March 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, "The Second Epoch; The Story continued by Marian Halcombe, Blackwater Park, Hampshire: VI, July 4th, Four o'clock" p. 181; p. 118 in the 1861 volume.
“She stopped again, Marian, at that point ——”
“And said no more?”
“And listened eagerly. ‘Hush!’ she whispered, still waving her hand at me. ‘Hush!’ She moved aside out of the doorway, moved slowly and stealthily, step by step, till I lost her past the edge of the boat-house.”
“Surely you followed her?”
“Yes, my anxiety made me bold enough to rise and follow her. Just as I reached the entrance, she appeared again suddenly, round the side of the boat-house. ‘The Secret,’ I whispered to her — ‘wait and tell me the Secret!’ She caught hold of my arm, and looked at me with wild frightened eyes. ‘Not now,’ she said, ‘we are not alone — we are watched. Come here to-morrow at this time — by yourself — mind — by yourself.’ She pushed me roughly into the boat-house again, and I saw her no more.”
“Oh, Laura, Laura, another chance lost! If I had only been near you she should not have escaped us. On which side did you lose sight of her?”
“On the left side, where the ground sinks and the wood is thickest.”
“Did you run out again? did you call after her?”
“How could I? I was too terrified to move or speak.” ["The Second Epoch. The Story continued by Marian Halcombe," Blackwater Park, Hampshire. July 4th, Four o'clock," p. 181; p. 118 in the 1861 volume.]
Retracing her steps through the plantation to find her missing broach, Laura is searching the floor of the boat-house when she hears somebody behind: a somewhat wasted Anne Catherick. The young woman to the left of McLenan's illustration, with the gaunt face and dark shawl, barely resembles his original representation of her, "I turned on the instant, with my fingers tightening round the handle of my stick" in the first serial instalment, 26 November 1859. But for her finer features, we might mistake the figure to the right as that of Marian Halcombe, for when she is out walking she wears such a hat. The nervous Anne reaches out to Laura, expressing her concern that somebody is overhearing them, and that she therefore cannot reveal the secret that she should have disclosed to Laura before her marriage to Glyde. Is this secret just Anne Catherick's "excited fancy," or is this sufficiently damning that Glyde is deathly afraid of its being revealed?
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1860.
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 and F. A. Fraser. Toronto: Broadview, 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. 205-25.
Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November 1859 — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. Pp. 44-46.
Created 11 July 2024