Freedom's Dawn at Wildfell Hall — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

On October twenty-fourth Helen executes the escape. She, Rachel, and little Arthur rise early and descend stealthily to the hall, where Benson stands ready with a light to open the door and fasten it after them. He is the one servant let into the secret because of the boxes; Helen slips him two guineas as remembrance, all she can spare, while he offers good wishes with a tear in his eye. When the park wicket closes behind them she breathes free air and looks back on dark, still Grassdale. The coach journey mixes trembling joy with weariness as prison and despair recede with every clatter of hooves. She travels as a widow in mourning to explain solitary arrival. At length Wildfell Hall appears; Frederick has received her letter and a faint red glimmer in one window shows rooms prepared against her worst fears of a dark, empty refuge. Rachel remembers walking there with Helen in her arms years before. Gilbert's frame narration admits he would have given much to read the pages torn from the manuscript where Helen's regard for him grew, but accepts he had no right to witness what she had kept sacred. He suspects flattering pages were removed as well as wounding ones. The chapter ends his reading of her diary and passes to his own story.