. English: Bella and John Rokesmith encounter Mortimer Lightwood on the street. Stone's illustration for Book 4, 'A Turning,' Chapter 12, 'The Passing Shadow,' appeared in the October, 1865, instalment. The moment realized brings together the Rokesmiths and Mortimer Lightwood, a meeting that John Rokesmith and the novelist have both endeavoured to put off for as long as possible. The London street scene captured in the thirty-eighth illustration is established at the very opening of the chapter. Quite by chance, as they are in the city to 'make some purchases' (656), Bella and John Rokesmith e
. English: Bella and John Rokesmith encounter Mortimer Lightwood on the street. Stone's illustration for Book 4, 'A Turning,' Chapter 12, 'The Passing Shadow,' appeared in the October, 1865, instalment. The moment realized brings together the Rokesmiths and Mortimer Lightwood, a meeting that John Rokesmith and the novelist have both endeavoured to put off for as long as possible. The London street scene captured in the thirty-eighth illustration is established at the very opening of the chapter. Quite by chance, as they are in the city to 'make some purchases' (656), Bella and John Rokesmith encounter Mortimer Lightwood on the street, a coincidence which leads to the revelation that John had originally used the alias 'Julius Handford' when he arrived in London, and that he is therefore a 'person of interest' in the murder of John Harmon. As a result of this revelation, John's reason for having avoided Mortimer, even to the point of refusing to attend the wedding of Eugene Wrayburn and Lizzie Hexam, is now apparent. Bella, of course, is surprised, so that this incident, a year into their marriage, becomes a test of faith for the Rokesmiths. Thus, the trial of Bella — of her renunciation of the quest for wealth instead of love — enters its final phase. The passage and accompanying illustration should mark a moment of high drama: the exposure of John Rokesmith's double identity. And yet, despite the fact that the scene prepares us for Rokesmith's being none other than John Harmon — a fact not known even to Rokesmith's wife, and certainly not to Mortimer Lightwood, who has every reason to suspect Bella's husband of having played some sort of role in Harmon's drowning — the picture is hardly dramatic. Bella smiles enquiringly at her husband, and he in turn smiles at the well-dressed passenger on the sidewalk, neither betraying by their expressions the momentous nature of the meeting. By his posture — leaning back on his walking stick with his right hand, Mortim
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Keywords: ., /, /., 00., 14, 18, 22, 2010, marcus, november, stone.
