The French Lieutenant’s Woman: Chapter 54 Summary & Analysis

Charles tries to find Sam before he leaves Lyme, but he can’t. As his carriage draws further away, he begins to feel better. He accepts that he must prove that his decision was the right one, but he feels hopeful. He thinks of a statue in the British Museum of a pharaoh and his wife standing in an embrace, and he feels that he and Sarah are similarly carved from one stone. He plans for them to go abroad as soon as possible, and he imagines the places they’ll go. They’ll be exiled, but they’ll be brought together by their outcast state.

In Exeter, Charles goes straight to Endicott’s Family Hotel, imagining the purity of his reunion with Sarah. He knocks on Mrs. Endicott’s door and says he’s going to Sarah’s room, but she says that Sarah has left. He doesn’t understand at first, and she says Sarah took the train to London. Charles asks if she left an address, but Mrs. Endicott says Sarah didn’t even speak to her. She thought maybe she was going to meet Charles. He tells her to let him know if she hears anything from Sarah. He leaves, but returns to ask if a servant came with a letter for Sarah that morning. He did not.

Charles collapses in his carriage. He wonders why Sam didn’t deliver the letter. He realizes Sam must have read it and quit because his disobedience would be discovered when they returned to Exeter. Charles wants to kill him. His only hope is that Sarah might have gone to London to find him, but if she was looking for him, surely she would have gone to Lyme. And besides, she probably thought he was lost to her. That night, Charles prays that he will find Sarah.