The False Alarm and Wedding Surprise — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

On a snowy December afternoon Gilbert walks home from the vicarage beside Eliza Millward, a civility undertaken for his mother that he hates. The vicar still holds that Helen should have appealed to law rather than leave her husband, calling flight a violation of sacred duty and a tempting of Providence. Eliza torments Gilbert with news that Helen will marry Walter Hargrave on Thursday and Lawrence has gone to the wedding. Gilbert cuts short the walk, cuts across fields, and races to Woodford through snow as fast as his legs can carry him. Lawrence has not left; he never received Gilbert's frantic assumption. Helen is at Staningley with her aunt Mrs. Maxwell, not at Grassdale marrying Hargrave. Lawrence reveals he is engaged to Esther Hargrave, whose letter announcing the intended marriage Gilbert never received because it crossed him on the road. Gilbert's hatred of Lawrence for forty hours reverses into relief and love. Eliza manufactured the crisis from scraps of gossip and malice. Gilbert understands Lawrence's past secrecy: Esther was the young friend staying with his aunt during his months abroad, and his reserve partly spared Gilbert the infectious topic of love while he quietly pursued his own happiness. The false alarm exposes how rumour and pride nearly derail Gilbert again just as Helen's widowhood makes hope possible.