The Moment of Truth Arrives — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The tardy gig overtakes him at last. He climbs in and bids the man drive to Grassdale Manor, too busy with his own thoughts to take the reins. Her husband has been dead above a year; there can be no impropriety in seeing Mrs Huntingdon now, and her joy or indifference at his unexpected arrival will tell him whether her heart is his. The talkative driver will not leave him in peace. He narrates Hargrave's mercenary marriage to a plain woman near forty, after a richer widow would not yield her purse, and already she rues the bargain. At the park gates Gilbert's heart sinks at the stately winter grounds, then steadies: the estate is entailed on little Arthur. The porter's lodge says Mrs Huntingdon is with her aunt in another shire, expected before Christmas. She spends most of her time at Staningley.

He turns for the coach. Fellow passengers, pointing at Maxwell land, tell him the uncle is dead and has left every rood, the mansion, and all to his niece: a young handsome widow, a fortune of her own, one child, a fine estate in the other county as well. There will be lots to speak for her; she will marry none but a nobleman. The coach stops at the park gates. Gilbert's face is white enough to be asked if he is sickly.

He does not walk up the park. He paces before the gates and tells himself the hope is gone. To present himself now would be to presume on an acquaintance forced upon her when she was an unknown fugitive, and to afflict her with a choice between his fidelity and her friends' prudence. She shall never know he approached her abode. Adieu then, dear Helen, forever. He says it, moves a few paces, looks back, and cannot go. He leans his back against a rough old tree beside the road.