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Armadale - Week 6: Book the Fourth, Ch. X-XIV
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Wow! What a wonderful experience that must have been for you. A very rare opportunity.
Ch. X - “Miss Gwilt’s Diary”
Lydia is taken aback by Midwinter’s confession about his past and true identity and cannot stop thinking about it. She convinces him to go to London for a while, supposedly for propriety but really to get him out of the way. She muses over various options moving forward, and it is clear how very hardened she is, so emotionless is she about the deceptions she is practicing.
It becomes apparent to her that Allan has slipped beyond her grasp. Neither her words nor her tears move him, and she realizes that her plan has failed. She blames Miss Milroy and vows vengeance. She becomes annoyed at Bashwood's adoration and makes him angry.
Lydia spies on Allan and Miss Milroy in the park and overhears that Miss Milroy is to be sent to school immediately and is heartbroken. Allan proposes and Miss Milroy feigns outrage. Has he forgotten that he has not been forgiven his straying? That her father has forbidden him the house? How dare he propose a runaway match! What a scandal! She orders him away and he goes, but Lydia now sees that Miss Milroy actually cares for him, which makes her more determined than ever to prevent their marriage.
Lydia’s visit to Allan’s estate becomes known and she is dropped by the ladies who had taken her cause against Allan. She spies on Allan and Miss Milroy again and watches the girl wring another proposal from him as she details how terrible life at the cottage has become, and this time it is not rebuffed so firmly. Miss Milroy dictates a letter for Allan to send the Major to repair their rift. Lydia is still unsure of how to prevent their marriage. She enlists Bashwood to spy on the Pedgifts, and receives a letter from Midwinter which “flatters [her] and flutters [her]” as if she were a young girl again. Midwinter has been offered a job on the Continent and awaits only her answer for his decision. This way he can have Lydia and save Allan by putting distance between them. Lydia toys with the idea, feeling drawn to Midwinter, and compares herself to Eve, offering the apple to Adam.
Lydia realizes that if she does marry Midwinter, her name will legally be Mrs. Allan Armadale. She is still thinking on this when Mrs. Oldershaw threatens to have her thrown in debtor’s prison if she doesn’t pay what she owes, and Miss Milroy cuts her dead in front of several people in a shop. Desperate, she looks through her former husband’s letters and one ignites an idea–if she marries Midwinter and Allan leaves Thorpe-Ambrose still a single man and dies abroad, she could present herself to his lawyers with a document legally certifying her as Mrs. Allan Armdale. No one else knows that there are two Allans, and no one else knows of his secret engagement to Miss Milroy. It could work! Then she realizes that she had not taken Midwinter into account; he would be a major obstacle to this very neat plan. She writes to Mrs. Oldershaw to go ahead and have her arrested–it would be the best thing that could happen to her!
Lydia discovers that Allan’s plea for forgiveness to the Major has been refused, so he and Miss Milroy have to keep their relationship secret, which helps Lydia. Allan once again proposes elopement, and with her departure for school looming, Miss Milroy listens. However, his parting words to Neelie, urging her not to worry because he has “plenty of money,” fill Lydia with rage. She has five pounds to her name and is facing debtor’s prison, and he is going to lay “plenty of money” at this chit’s feet? Lydia decides to ask Allan to borrow the money she needs but he insults her by openly avoiding meeting with her in the street, so now she’s really pumped about killing him. She writes to Midwinter that she is coming to London and to go ahead and plan the wedding! She's still not sure how to resolve Midwinter's part in her plan to obtain Allan's estate.
Ch. XI - “Love and Law”
Allan and Neelie decide that they have to elope, but Neelie decides that they must first determine if a runaway match will be legally binding, so they consult a lawbook. What they find is dispiriting, so Allan decides to go to London and consult with lawyers he knows there. This is exactly where Lydia wants him to go, and she is thrilled that he is falling so neatly into her trap.
Ch. XII - “A Scandal at the Station”
Lydia forces Allan to be her escort on the train to London (or rather, his own civility does so). Having caused her to lose her job (he thought) and having snubbed her in the street, he feels that he can’t refuse to share a car with her on the train, especially since she claims that she needs to speak privately about Midwinter. Before boarding, Lydia also sends an anonymous note to the cottage, informing Major Milroy about his daughter’s private meetings in the park–just a little good-bye gift for her former pupil. Allan and Lydia quickly become the topic of conversation at the station, with predictions leaning heavily on Lydia returning as Mrs. Armadale. Someone notices Mr. Bashwood standing in the corner as though in a trance. The porter takes him to the pub since the old man seems barely able to walk or talk. Once he takes a drink, his shocked system rallies and in a “jealous frenzy of rage against the woman who had deceived him” (467), he vows revenge. He has no thought for Allan, for “in his rage, as in his love, he was absorbed, body and soul, with Miss Gwilt” (468). He makes an appointment with Pedgift Sr., who is driving by, to spill the beans on Lydia.
Ch. XIII - “An Old Man’s Heart”
Mr. Bashwood goes to meet with Pedgift and there takes a very long time to get to the point. Finally he makes it known that he believes Lydia has a dark past, and he hopes he can expose this and by doing so, prevent her marriage to Allan. In his mind, she will then turn to him. Pedgift is not interested in helping him since Lydia ceased to be his professional problem the minute he resigned as Allan’s attorney. Mr. Bashwood leaves, dejected, after asking Pedgift Jr., for help and being made fun of.
He returns to his sad little room and his landlady dredges up all of his tragic past with her thoughtless questions–his alcoholic wife’s death in an asylum, the death of his infant daughter, and how his grown son used and discarded him, leaving him ruined. However, it also reminds him that this same scamp works for the Private Inquiry Office, so he immediately writes to him and requests his help in discovering Lydia’s past.
At the cottage, Lydia’s note and the rumors about Allan and Lydia’s departure have resulted in the Major and Neelie departing suddenly together for Lowestoft for a “change of air.” Bashwood’s son writes back and agrees to help as long as his father understands that he has to pay for all expenses, even though the son acknowledges his past misdeeds against his father. Mr. Bashwood is overjoyed, convinced that marrying Lydia himself is still a possibility. I think we have ourselves a Victorian stalker!!
Ch. IVX - “Miss Gwilt’s Diary” (Part II)
Miss Gwilt begins this diary entry with the train trip to London. She enjoys the feeling of sitting and making conversation with a man whom she is planning to kill. Allan accompanies her to Midwinter’s hotel, eager to reconcile with his dear friend. Again, her reluctant partiality for Midwinter is expressed throughout. She persuades Midwinter to make up with Allan and he agrees. Allan takes a room at the hotel, enabling Lydia to keep tabs on him. She finds a cheap lodging and plans to pawn her watch for money, comfortable with the knowledge that she will be married within a fortnight to Midwinter and have no more money problems.
The next morning she consults a lawyer about marrying Midwinter under her maiden name instead of her widowed name, which is, apparently, notorious. She discovers that it could only hurt her if her husband finds out and moves to invalidate the marriage, but she knows that he will only find out when she attempts to claim Allan’s estate, and by that time, she will have “invalidated [her] own marriage forever” (489). Foreboding! Again, Collins so cleverly conveys Lydia’s feelings for Midwinter, as well as her own dark past when she writes, “Something flutters in the place where my heart used to be. At five and thirty, too! and after such a life as mine!” (489).
Lydia makes up a story about her past and feeds it to Midwinter, who believes every word of it. Lydia spends some time grappling with her conflicted feelings for him and the unusual guilt she feels in deceiving him. She plans to continue to have acces to Allan’s actions through Midwinter. She finds out about Miss Milroy’s relocation to Lowestoft and that Allan’s is distraught. I love her scathing description: “To say that he was like a child is a libel on all children who are not born idiots” (494). Tell us how you really feel, Lydia! LOL
The Major’s conditions for his daughter’s future relationship with Allan are those of a kind and loving father, but Lydia observes the irony in that they also worked in her favor as though he had been her accomplice. Midwinter and Lydia succeed in talking Allan out of his more ridiculous reactions and he accepts that he must be separated from his love for six months. They decide that he will first visit Brock, then sail to Italy to visit the Midwinters, on what Lydia plans to be his last voyage ever. She also realizes that she is being followed. She, being an expert in this area, eludes the spies and limits her interaction with Midwinter and Allan to letters. When Allan gets a sternly-worded letter from Major Milroy about his traveling with Miss Gwilt, she promises him to write to the Major and set the record straight. Of course, she will do no such thing.
The date is set for her marriage to Midwinter, whom she now admits that she loves. It is derailed by the news that Brock is dying and Midwinter must be by his side. Lydia is apprehensive that her name will come up, but Brock dies before Midwinter’s arrival. Lydia returns to the milliner for her dress but becomes suspicious of the shop women and possible connections to her former followers. She begins to have doubts about her plan to kill Armadale and wonders if her love for Midwinter or his for her is changing her.
Miss Gwilt was right to suspect the milliner; she is once again under surveillance. She makes plans to elude them again. On the eve of her wedding, Midwinter shows her a letter from Brock that he wrote shortly before his death. He blames the rift between Midwinter and Allan on Midwinter’s superstitious belief in the dream and begs him to take a more Christian view of the situation. His observation that Midwinter is more likely to save Allan than doom him disturbs Lydia, and the grip of her newfound love for him makes her unwilling to act in any way that could bring harm to him. She abandons her plan to kill Allan and embraces the future as Midwinter's wife.
Wow! Has Lydia actually experienced a moral awakening? We can see how mercurial her moods are, and that she does have some sincere feelings for Midwinter, but will it last? She compares herself to both Eve and Lady Macbeth in this section; could she really have become the Collins’ version of Scrooge? Will her newfound love be enough to satisfy that drive for security and comfort that defines her? Please share your thoughts!