A Dark Night's Work

"Wait--you have not heard all--my poor, poor father, in a fit of anger, irritated beyond his bearing, struck the blow that killed Mr. Dunster--Dixon and I knew of it, just after the blow was struck--we helped to hide it--we kept the secret--my poor father died of sorrow and remorse--you now know all--can you still love me?"

Blow, burial of the secret, broken engagement, delayed trial, and full confession form a complete domestic crime arc — so plot scores 86.

Ralph Corbet found it a very difficult thing to keep down his curiosity during the next few days. It was a miserable thing to have Ellinor's unspoken secret severing them like a phantom. But he had given her his word that he would make no further inquiries from her.

Ellinor's silence and Corbet's curbed curiosity individuate the lovers around a shared phantom — typed but motive-clear — so cast scores 84.

A few days afterwards, Ellinor's father bethought himself that same further communication ought to take place between him and his daughter's lover regarding the approval of the family of the latter to the young man's engagement, and he accordingly wrote a very gentlemanly letter.

Gentlemanly lettering and later newspaper crisis keep sixteen chapters moving without digressive Manchester bulk — so pace scores 85.

In the county town of a certain shire there lived (about forty years ago) one Mr. Wilkins, a conveyancing attorney of considerable standing. The certain shire was but a small county, and the principal town in it contained only about four thousand inhabitants.

Exact professional standing and small-county scale set a plain legal prose that later carries confession without ornament overload — so prose scores 85.

Ellinor, having read the report of Dixon's examination in the newspaper, bathed her eyes and forehead in cold water, and tried to still her poor heart's beating, that she might be clear and collected enough to weigh the evidence. Every line of it was condemnatory.

Newspaper Assize report and Hamley household make English law a local weather system of dread — so world scores 83.

In the county town of a certain shire there lived (about forty years ago) one Mr. Wilkins, a conveyancing attorney of considerable standing. The certain shire was but a small county, and the principal town in it contained only about four thousand inhabitants; so in saying that Mr. Wilkins was the principal lawyer in Hamley, I say very little.

Attorney of 'considerable standing' in a tiny shire invites before any blow falls — professional pride as bait — so hook scores 84.

Dixon and I knew of it, just after the blow was struck--we helped to hide it--we kept the secret--my poor father died of sorrow and remorse--you now know all--can you still love me? It seems to me as if I had been an accomplice in such a terrible thing!

Daughter as accomplice and former lover as judge reframes sensation around female secrecy rather than male detection alone — so innov scores 85.

Those who pass through the village of Bromham, and pause to look over the laurel-hedge that separates the rectory garden from the road, may often see, on summer days, an old, old man, sitting in a wicker-chair, out upon the lawn. … Nor is Miss Monro often absent; and although she prefers to retain the old house in the Close for winter quarters, she generally makes her way across to Canon Livingstone's residence every evening.

Confession yields rectory lawn and Miss Monro's evening walk — quiet absolution instead of Assize spectacle — so ending scores 86.