The Moonstone: The Discovery of the Truth 2: 1 Summary & Analysis

The solicitor Mathew Bruff explains his dual purposes in writing. First, he wants to explain “certain points of interest which have thus far been left in the dark,” namely Rachel and Godfrey’s real motives for ending the engagement—which Bruff alone knows. Secondly, his conversations with one of the three Indians and Mr. Murthwaite are quite relevant to the story of the Moonstone.

“The true story of the broken marriage engagement” starts many years before, at the deathbed of Sir John Verinder, who always avoided making a will—when he finally obliged, he dictated: “Everything to my wife. That’s my will.” And then he returned to his nap. Although Bruff would ordinarily object to this, he knew Julia was trustworthy and competent in business (unlike almost all other women, he remarks). And, indeed, shortly after Sir John’s death, Julia drew up her own, much more elaborate will, which Bruff did not bother to revisit until she received her final diagnosis—her “sentence of death”—in 1848. She wanted to make some minor changes, so she asked Bruff to prepare a second will—the one for which Miss Clack served as a witness. The only difference involving Rachel was the process for determining a guardian.

A few weeks after Julia signs her second will, Bruff receives news that someone from the firm Skipp and Smalley has paid to examine the will (which is perfectly legal, but unusual). Luckily, Bruff has close ties to this firm, which often takes up cases he turns down. Mr. Smalley explains that he cannot reveal his reasoning for viewing the will without breaking his attorney-client privilege, and Bruff recklessly threatens to cut off his relationship with Smalley if he does not learn who asked to see the will. Smalley obliges: it is Godfrey Ablewhite.

Bruff explains that the will leaves Rachel with houses and a steady income, but no means of liquidating the family’s property. Bruff sees that Godfrey wanted to marry Rachel for her money—and knows that he cannot get that money because of the will’s structure. So Bruff jumps on the opportunity to take Rachel to Brighton and gets Rachel to admit that she is “marrying in despair,” but that she believes Godfrey genuinely loves her. She realizes that Bruff has “something to tell [her] about Godfrey” and he explains his reservations. They walk together as she grows pale and withdrawn. Knowing that she is independent and thoughtful (unlike “the mass of her sex”), Bruff gives her time to think. After a long silence, she asks him to shoot down “any rumours of my marriage” in London and explains that she has decided to cut off the engagement.

Bruff asks if Rachel has some woman in her life to turn to for advice. She admits that she does not, so Bruff does his best to substitute, and suggests that she tell Godfrey honestly that she knows of his motives, and that it is in his best interest to at least outwardly agree with her reasons for ending the engagement. But Rachel says she cannot bear “the shame” of degrading Godfrey to his face, and that she will simply declare that it is over and better for both of them to be apart, regardless of Godfrey’s response. Bruff warns her not to “brave public opinion […] at the command of private feeling,” but she said she has already taken this risk with the Moonstone. Bruff grows confused and Rachel never clarifies this, leaving him conflicted and uneasy when he returns to London at the end of the day.

That night, back in London, Mr. Ablewhite the elder comes to visit Bruff and declare that Godfrey has accepted Rachel’s decision to end the engagement. This confirms that Godfrey was simply looking for “a large sum of money” by a definite date through his prospective marriage to Rachel, and that he eagerly gave up on the engagement once he realized he would not get this windfall. But Mr. Ablewhite’s behavior showed Bruff that he would be “merciless” when confronting Rachel, and Miss Clack’s narrative shows how Bruff decided to cope with this danger. He ends his first chapter by affirming “that Miss Verinder found the quiet and repose which she sadly needed” by staying with Bruff and his family.