Chapter 18 — The Picture of Dorian Gray

The next day Dorian hides in his room, sick with terror of dying yet indifferent to life, seeing James Vane in every trembling tapestry and dead leaf against the glass. He tells himself it was fancy, that conscience invents phantoms, and that in the real world the wicked are not punished. Lord Henry finds him crying like a brokenhearted boy, but by the third day pine air and pride of temperament return him to the shooting-party.

In the frost-bright park he begs Geoffrey Clouston not to shoot a hare, yet the gun fires and two cries rise: the hare's and a man's. A beater has been killed in the thicket. Lord Henry calls it the man's own fault and says ennui is the only horror, while Dorian feels misfortune follow him like a curse and imagines a watcher behind the trees.

A gardener brings a note from the duchess. Dorian orders the night express to town, then learns from the keeper that the dead beater is an unknown tattooed sailor. He gallops to the Home Farm stable, has a servant lift the handkerchief from the face, and a cry of joy breaks from him: the corpse is James Vane. He rides home in tears because he knows he is safe.