So
Falkner—deeply disturbed—leaves her in tears. And begins to plot …
He employs a
coachman, who, under orders from Falkner himself, takes Althea by force to a
remote cottage; there, Falkner hopes, he can at last convince her to be with
him—to flee her creep of a husband.
But she is
so terrified—and a storm is raging (of course!)—that she has fallen into a
swoon. Falkner, arriving, realizes all of this has been an egregious mistake,
and when he goes to help with the horses, he discovers, on his return, that
Althea, trying to escape, is in the river. Where, of course, she drowns.
In despair, Falkner
flees to Cornwall, where, as we saw at the outset of this novel, a little girl,
Elizabeth, prevents his suicide.
Elizabeth
finishes reading Falkner’s account and, forgiveness in her heart; she believes
all will be well. Falkner returns, and they wait for news from Neville—news he
is certain will be a challenge to a duel.
Meanwhile,
Neville has been reading Falkner’s accounts of these events, and he is
ambivalent. He travels to find his father, who has gone to the spot where
Falkner buried Althea. They dig. They find something. With one consent, though in silence, every one gathered nearer and
looked in—they saw a human skeleton.[1]
(Well, that was pleasant.)
On her
finger, by the way, remains her wedding ring.
And Falkner
goes to jail. Murder is the charge.
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