When Gossip Forces Your Hand — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

About three weeks have passed. Mrs Graham and Gilbert now call each other Gilbert and Helen, and keep their meetings looking accidental. He seldom tries to see her more than twice a week, and behaves with such care that she never has to reprove him. The brotherly act is hard to sustain. He feels she is not indifferent, and keeps that hope to himself. One evening after tea Rose watches him brush his hat and put on new gloves, and asks if he is going to Wildfell Hall. She wishes he would not go so often. The parish is talking. Jane Wilson and the Millwards use his visits, her painting for money, and odd hours as fresh scandal.

Gilbert tries to laugh it off, then refuses to believe anything against Helen unless he hears it from her own lips. He would as soon believe such things of Rose. Rose answers that he knows nothing of Helen's former life; last year he did not know she existed. He claims one hour looking through a person's eyes can teach more than a lifetime of gossip. He will go that evening. Mamma need not know. Rose warns him to be more careful for Helen's sake as well as his own.

Mr Millward arrives, refuses tea, and calls for home-brewed ale. He has been to see Mrs Graham. He thought it incumbent upon him. He told her the terrible reports; she turned white, offered no defence, and treated his pastoral advice as thrown away. Gilbert starts from his seat and strikes the table. Unable to sit still while the vicar drinks, he snatches his hat, slams the door until the house shakes, and hurries toward Wildfell Hall with no plan beyond seeing her.