The Woman in Black: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

After a four-hour jaunt to the next town over, Arthur returns to Crythin Gifford feeling positively aglow. He feels like a new man—he is not just ready, but eager to face down the Drablow house again. In his defiant mood, he is hardly paying attention to where he’s going, and nearly steers his bike straight into Samuel Daily’s motor car.

Samuel Daily lowers the window and asks Arthur if he has been out to Eel Marsh; Arthur proudly answers that he has. There is a brief silence between the two men before Arthur begins insisting that he is “enjoying” the challenge of cleaning out the house. Daily warns Arthur that he is “whistling in the dark,” and invites him over to dinner at seven o’clock that evening. He urges Arthur to get instructions to his house from the landlord, and then sits back as his driver pulls away.

Back at the hotel, Arthur begins making arrangements for the next day or so—he asks for the landlord to ready a basket of food for him to take over to Eel Marsh, and procures from town some tea, coffee, bread, biscuits, and matches himself. He purchases a torch lantern and heavy rain boots, wanting to be prepared for anything. When he tells the landlord that he plans to spend tomorrow night and the night after at Eel Marsh, the landlord is silent; Arthur knows that they are both remembering the frenzied state in which Arthur returned to the inn just the previous evening.

Arthur arrives at Samuel Daily’s house for dinner and is impressed by the imposing estate. He thinks that both Daily and his wife seem “ill at ease” in their grand home—they clearly do not come from money, and now that they have a lot of it, they seem unsure of what to do with it all. Nevertheless, they serve Arthur a delicious meal, and Arthur himself feels very at home. Daily is downright gleeful as he recounts the tale of his “rising fortune” to Arthur over dinner, and Arthur begins confiding in Daily about his own life back in London.

After dinner, Mrs. Daily goes up to bed, and Arthur and Samuel Daily drink port and whiskey in the study. As Daily pours Arthur’s first drink, he warns Arthur that he’d be a “fool” to go on with his business at Eel Marsh. Arthur replies that he’d never “turn tail and run” from a job, but Daily grows serious, asking Arthur if he experienced anything strange at the house. Arthur launches into the full story of his experience the day before, but concludes that he is more than prepared to return to the manor—and to encounter the ghost of the wasted-faced woman in black again.

Unable to change Arthur’s mind, Samuel Daily offers to have his driver bring Arthur back to the inn; Arthur says he prefers to walk. Daily tells Arthur to take his dog, Spider—a small but sturdy terrier—back to the manor with him in case of trouble. At Daily’s command, Spider sticks close to Arthur’s heels and follows him all the way back to the inn. In a strange way, Arthur is looking forward to tomorrow.