The Woman in White: The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

One morning Walter comes down to breakfast and finds that Marian is not there. Laura is out on the lawn but there is so much mutual embarrassment between them, because of their feelings for each other, that he does not go out and speak to her. When Marian comes back and Laura comes inside for breakfast, Marian tells Laura that she has had heard from Mr. Fairlie and that the “purple room” is to be prepared. This news makes Laura begin to cry and, as the group get up from the breakfast table, Walter feels a terrible premonition that he is soon to be separated from Laura.

Marian takes Walter aside as he is leaving the dining room and asks for a private word. They go into the garden, but before Marian has spoken to Walter, a lad approaches them with a letter for Laura, which he tells her was given to him by an old woman at the gate. Marian thinks this is strange but takes it nonetheless and then leads Walter to the summer house.

Once inside, Marian tells Walter that she knows he is in love with Laura. She sympathizes with him and knows that he is well intentioned towards her sister, but she feels that she must tell him to leave Limmeridge House because Laura is engaged to be married.

Walter is heartbroken and begins to cry, but Marian urges him to “crush” his affections for Laura here “where they started” in the summer house. She explains that Laura is not in love with her future husband but that she is bound to marry him because she promised her father on his deathbed. Therefore, it will be better for Laura if Walter leaves Limmeridge immediately, since she is unlikely to break off her engagement and go against her father’s wishes. The room that she spoke of at breakfast is for Laura’s future husband, who will arrive the next week.

Devastated, Walter agrees that it would be best for him to leave Limmeridge. The pair get up to leave the summer house and Laura’s maid rushes up to them and begs Marian to come into the house. Walter lingers in the garden feeling depressed and embarrassed, and anticipating his mother’s disappointment when he returns early from his job. Marian returns and seems distracted and distressed. She tells Walter that Laura is very upset by the letter she has received.

As they make their way back towards the house, Walter questions Marian about Laura’s future husband. Marian tells Walter that he is a gentleman from Hampshire. Walter remembers that Mrs. Fairlie’s letter revealed that Anne Catherick came from Hampshire too and he is unnerved by the constant reappearance of the woman in white in his circumstances. Marian tells him that the man’s name is Sir Percival Glyde. Walter suddenly remembers the woman in white’s complaint about a “certain Baronet” and asks Marian what Sir Percival’s Glyde’s title is. Irritable, and in a hurry to comfort her sister, Marian answers sharply that he is a Baronet.