The woman in white
Walter hartright was given a job drawing to Marian and
Laura, the two nieces of Frederick Fairlie, at limmeridge House.
The night before he left for Limmeridge House, Walter
met a strange young woman dressed in white. She asked him if he knew any
aristocrats, and she told him about a woman called Mrs Fairlie. Later, Walter
heard a man saying that she had escaped from an asylum.
Two days later he was in limmeridge. He immediately
fell in love with Laura. He told Marian about the woman in white. Marian
thought that she was a student of her mother's called Anne catherick.
Three months later, Walter had to leave limmeridge
house because Laura's future husband, sir Percival, was coming. Walter was
worried that sir Percival was the evil aristocrat Anne had mentioned.
A day after their arrival, sir Percival tried to force
Laura to sign a document. Laura refused and sir Percival became angry, but the
count was able to tame him with his cool, grey eyes.
Marian told the family lawyer to investigate, but sir
Percival explained everything satisfactorily. However, in the marriage
settlement, he insisted on inheriting 20 thousand pounds of Laura's money if
she died. Laura's uncle did not argue with this.
After their wedding, Laura and her husband went to Italy for 6
months. They returned to sir Percival's home together with count and Madame Fosco.
One day Laura met Anne by the lake. Anne told her that
sir Percival had a terrible secret but, before she can tell Laura the secret,
she run away. When sir Percival heard of their meeting become angry and didn't believed
Laura when she says she knows nothing about the secret. A couple of days later Marian
climbed up on to the library roof to listen to a conversation between fosco and
sir Percival. She heads that sir Percival would get 20 thousand pounds and
fosco's wife 10 thousand if Laura died. While she is listening begins to rain.
She gets wet and becomes very ill. Laura is so worried about her sister that
she gets ill and stays in her room, too. Later sir Percival tells Laura that Marian
has gone to limmeridge . He tells her to follow Marian there. However, after Laura
has left, we learn that sir Percival was laying and Marian never left
blackwater. A short time later we learn that Laura has died in London of heart disease.
Walter returns to England
and hears of Laura's death. He goes to visit her grave at limmeridge. To his
great surprise, he sees both Marian and Laura there. Marian tells him that she
found Laura in the asylum. She explains that the count had told Mr Fairlie that
Laura was really Anne catherick. When he hears this, Walter is determinated to
prove Laura's real identity. He thinks that sir Percival will tell the truth if
he can discover his secret. He decides to go and talk to Mrs Catherick. All he
learns from her is that the secret concerns sir Percival's mother. Later, by
examin the marriage register, Walter discovers that sir Percival's parents were
not married. Therefore, sir Percival has no right to his property and title.
However, this information doesn't help Walter because sir Percival dies in a
fire in the church vestry and the marriage register in destroyed. After sir
Percival died in fire, Walter received a letter from Mrs Catherick in which she
revealed sir percival's secret: his parents were not really married and he had
no legal rights to his father's property and title. In her letter she also
revealed that Anne had once called Percival an impostor. Fearing she knew his
secret, he sent her to the asylum. Walter also received a letter from Marian
saying that she and Laura had moved house. Laura got better in the new house
and Walter continued his investigations. A letter from major donthorne finally
explained the mystery of the similarity between Laura and Anne: they had the
same father. When April arrived, Laura's illness was over and Walter and Laura
got married. In May, Walter invited his Italian friend pesca to the opera house
to see if he knew the count. Pesca didn't know him, but the count certainly
recognised pesca, and he quickly left. After the opera, pesca told Walter that
he was a member of a secret association called the brotherhood. He said that
anyone who betrayed the association would be killed. Pesca asked Walter not to
tell him anything about count fosco because he didn't want to have to kill him.
After Walter left pesca, he formed a to obtain a written confession from
count fosco. He wanted proof of the count and sir percival's conspiration against
Laura. That same night Walter went to see fosco. His worked- the count
gave him everything he wanted. Afterwards, the count and his wife left England. Now
that Laura had proved her real identity, she, Marian and Walter returned to
limmridge house. Her uncle and all those who attend her funeral came to see Laura
was alive and well. Two weeks later fosco was killed in Paris as a traitor of brotherhood. Two years
after this, Laura and Walter's son was born-the new hear of limmeridge house.
