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"He looked me attentively in the face, with more appearance of interest than he had shown yet."
John McLenan
9 June 1860
11.2 cm high by 8.8 cm wide (4 ¼ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted, p. 365; p. 185 in the 1861 volume.
Twenty-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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"He looked me attentively in the face, with more appearance of interest than he had shown yet." — staff artist John McLenan's twenty-ninth composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 29, published on 9 June 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, "The Second Epoch; "The Narrative of Walter Hartright, Resumed. II," p. 365; p. 185 in the 1861 volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Mr. Kyrle’s calmly attentive face relaxed, for the first time, into a smile.
“With your opinion of the conduct of those two gentlemen,” he said, “you don’t expect help in that quarter, I presume? If they have combined to gain large sums of money by a conspiracy, they are not likely to confess it, at any rate.”“They may be forced to confess it, Mr. Kyrle.”
“By whom?”
“By me.”
We both rose. He looked me attentively in the face with more appearance of interest than he had shown yet. I could see that I had perplexed him a little.
“You are very determined,” he said. “You have, no doubt, a personal motive for proceeding, into which it is not my business to inquire. If a case can be produced in the future, I can only say, my best assistance is at your service. At the same time I must warn you, as the money question always enters into the law question, that I see little hope, even if you ultimately established the fact of Lady Glyde’s being alive, of recovering her fortune. The foreigner would probably leave the country before proceedings were commenced, and Sir Percival’s embarrassments are numerous enough and pressing enough to transfer almost any sum of money he may possess from himself to his creditors. You are of course aware ——”
I stopped him at that point.
“Let me beg that we may not discuss Lady Glyde’s affairs,” I said. “I have never known anything about them in former times, and I know nothing of them now — except that her fortune is lost. You are right in assuming that I have personal motives for stirring in this matter. I wish those motives to be always as disinterested as they are at the present moment ——”
He tried to interpose and explain. I was a little heated, I suppose, by feeling that he had doubted me, and I went on bluntly, without waiting to hear him. [Part 29: "Hartright's Narrative, II," p. 365; pp. 185-186 in the 1861 volume.]
The "he" of the caption is Marian Halcombe's attorney, Mr. Kyrle, whom both she and Walter Hartright have consulted about how to establish that Fosco and Glyde have fabricated Laura's death in order to control her fortune. The skeptical lawyer takes interest when Walter vows to bring the scoundrels to justice, if only he can produce sufficient "law-proof," which Kyrle still doubts.
McLenan's Mr. Kyrle, an elderly, skeptical, and scrupulously logical London attorney, is not smiling. The picture, set in his legal office (as suggested by the law books on the table and on the shelves), is almost stage-like in its composition as a self-confident, placid Walter (left) expresses his determination to locate documentary proof that Lady Laura Glyde is still very much alive, even though Kyrle still insists that the evidence of her death is "on the face of it, clear and satisfactory." The picture seems to have utilized Collins's description of the attorney:
After waiting a few minutes I was shown into Mr. Kyrle’s private room. He was a pale, thin, quiet, self-possessed man, with a very attentive eye, a very low voice, and a very undemonstrative manner — not (as I judged) ready with his sympathy where strangers were concerned, and not at all easy to disturb in his professional composure. A better man for my purpose could hardly have been found. If he committed himself to a decision at all, and if the decision was favourable, the strength of our case was as good as proved from that moment. [183]
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 (26 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. 205-225.
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 30 July 2024