Poor Miss Finch

AT that astounding confession, abruptly revealed in those plain words, even resolute Nugent lost all power of self-control. He burst out with a cry which reached Lucilla's ears. She instantly turned towards us, and instantly assumed that the cry had come from Oscar's lips.

Twin cry misattributed by the blind heroine — identity-swap plot crystallizes in one scream — so plot scores 87.

The persons principally concerned in the Event are:--a blind girl; two (twin) brothers; a skilled surgeon; and a curious foreign woman. I am the curious foreign woman.

Narrator names the ensemble and claims the foreign-woman slot — cast as advertised personnel — so cast scores 88.

FIVE more days passed. During that interval, we saw our new neighbor constantly. Either Oscar came to the rectory, or we went to Browndown.

Five-day interval of visits — courtship dilates before twin complication — so pace scores 84.

But, so far as I know, blindness in these cases has been always exhibited, more or less exclusively, from the ideal and the sentimental point of view. The attempt here made is to appeal to an interest of another kind, by exhibiting blindness as it really is.

Programmatic anti-sentiment prose sets the novel's stylistic contract — so prose scores 86.

OSCAR'S dismissed servant (left, during the usual month of warning, to take care of the house) opened the door to me when I knocked. Although the hour was already a late one in primitive Dimchurch, the man showed no signs of surprise at seeing me.

Primitive Dimchurch lateness and Browndown door — village neighbor geography of the fraud — so world scores 85.

You are here invited to read the story of an Event which occurred in an out-of-the-way corner of England, some years since.

Direct invitation to an Event in an out-of-the-way corner — premise hook before names — so hook scores 87.

Her first exquisite sense of the recognition by touch had passed away. Her mind had recovered its balance. She separated herself from Oscar, and turned to me, with the one inevitable question

Recognition by touch after sight plot — blindness as alternate epistemology, not mere pathos — so innov scores 89.

Long live the Republic! Farewell. THE END

Political flourish closes after domestic interruption by child Nugent — comic-republican coda rather than tragic blindness elegy — so ending scores 86.