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READ THIS
Walter takes leave of St Matthias. He journeys to King William's Town where he catches the train to
Grahamstown to visit the Bishop en route to Port Elizabeth and his ship to England.
In the meantime, Victor sends a telegram to Frances requesting her to meet the train. She, believing she
is to meet Victor, decides that it is time to end the charade and break off her engagement to him.
READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE:
On Wednesday morning another telegram came. Frances heard the gate swing and click closed but she
did not go to see who called, nor answer the knock on the door. Victor's mother opened it herself and she
came to the living-room with the envelope in her hand and tore the seal and unfolded the paper, looking
up, her eyes moist, "Victor will be here at twelve."
Frances took the telegram and she read it:
The train at twelve. Wednesday.
Sent with my love. Victor.
Frances folded it and put it on the table. She looked at it a moment, lying there, and then she took it up
again and she went upstairs with it and she put it in the musical-box. It belonged there, that strangely
worded message . . . sent to you with my love . . . The train at twelve. Wednesday.
It was a quarter to eleven. Frances went to her cupboard and she opened it. She searched among the
skirts and blouses, the slight, elegant dresses that Aunt Alice had had made for her. She found her old
travelling dress that she had worn on the day that she had come from St Matthias. She took it out and
she laid it on the bed. She took her walking boots from her trunk and she took her cape.
She unpinned her hair from its arrangement on the top of her head and she brushed it and tied it back at
the nape of her neck. Then she went downstairs.
Aunt Alice said, "Frances, dearest, you are not meeting Victor like that, are you?" Gently admonishing.
"I have just told the groom to get the trap ready so he can drive us both to the station. The wind is chilly
but I'd hoped you'd try the costume Miss White delivered yesterday. I had it in mind especially for his
home-coming. You look so pale in that dark cape . . . "
"I won't go in the trap, Aunt Alice. I wish to walk and I want to speak to Victor alone."
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
Why is Frances staying in Grahamstown with Victor's mother? (4)
[Need help?]
Frances has been sent to Grahamstown by her mother after she announced that she had had sex with
Victor.
She had blurted out this confession in anger that her mother was punishing Benedict and Dorcas for their
similar transgression but ignoring the real sin of Dorcas's father being able to convert to Christianity so
as to rid himself of an unwanted second wife, and so cast this wife and her children into utter destitution.
In true Victorian fashion, however, Frances's mother believes that sex is the worse sin -- and is indeed
a consummation of marriage.
Frances must therefore marry Victor -- and has to be sent away to devote her time to preparation for her
wedding.
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What is so strange about the telegram? (2)
[Need help?]
The telegram does not tell Francis much about who will be at the railway station, only that she should be
there at a certain time.
In the words "Sent with my love", Victor also does not tell Frances that he loves her in a fiancé
type of way. It's rather a brotherly sort of ending to the telegram.
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Why did Victor send that telegram to Frances? (6)
[Need help?]
Victor has realised that Frances does not love him but that she and Walter love each other. One could
argue therefore that he is setting the two of them up to meet at Grahamstown.
There is another interpretation. Victor has known for months now that Frances does not really love him.
Her pawning of her engagement ring told him that loudly and clearly.
The marriage will therefore be a farce. Victor therefore decides to set Frances and Walter up for a
meeting, and thereby gallantly rid himself of something that he no longer desires.
It is also clear that Victor has been pursuing Warburton's daughter in Johannesburg. Victor is an empire
builder and it would be far more beneficial to him to marry the Warburton woman than marry a naive
mission girl who doesn't love him and will probably only offer him a sham marriage.
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Frances takes Victor's telegram and places it in the musical box.
- Why does she feel that it belongs there? (5)
[Need help?]
The musical box reminded Frances of the time when Victor had mocked Reverend Brompton and Walter
had scolded him for doing so.
Her brother, Crispin -- now dead -- had painstakingly repaired the machine before sending it on to the
deranged Brompton.
The musical box therefore had special memories for Frances and it came to represent the place where
she put all those things which meant anything to her.
In a sense, this present telegram from Victor probably reminds her of the old Victor, her big-brother figure
before sex and marriage had intervened. It therefore also deserved to be put in this special place.
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Explain the significance of the clothes that Frances decides to wear that day. (3)
[Need help?]
The clothes that Frances chooses are those which she had worn often at St Matthias where she had been
comfortable and happy.
She has clearly made a decision to end her engagement with Victor and return to the mission station. She
therefore avoids the stylish clothing she has been forced to wear in Grahamstown as Victor's fiancé
in favour of her comfortable clothing of happier times.
This is really a revolutionary moment in Frances's existence where she decides to take her life into her
own hands and no longer follow the orders of other people whose conventions she can no longer accept.
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Frances refuses the offer of the trap, and also rejects Aunt Alice's desire to accompany her to the railway
station.
- Why does she do this? (6)
[Need help?]
Frances has decided to end her engagement with Victor. She therefore wants to be alone and not in her
aunt's company.
She also wishes to walk to the station alone so as to steel herself for this action and rehearse what she
needs to say.
She is acutely aware that the presence of Aunt Alice would destroy her intention because Victor's aunt
would obviously side with her nephew in shouting Frances down.
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- What change does this indicate in Frances's character? (4)
[Need help?]
This is really a revolutionary moment in Frances's existence where she decides to take her life into her
own hands and no longer follow the orders of other people whose conventions she can no longer accept.
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- What happens when Frances reaches the station? (6)
[Need help?]
Frances waits for the train to arrive, expecting to meet Victor but after all the passengers have
disembarked, there is no sign of him.
She is about to leave when she notices the familiar figure of Walter. Both are taken by surprise at seeing
each other.
Frances asks Walter to take her home to Mbokhotwe with him (i.e. to marry her). They embrace and kiss,
signifying their realised love for each other.
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There is a difference in the mood between Frances and Aunt Alice in this passage.
- What, do you think, accounts for this difference? (4)
[Need help?]
Aunt Alice is still optimistic that Frances and Victor will marry.
Frances, on the other hand, has reached the decision that this is not so, that she must end her
engagement because it is clearly a farce that has been organised to fulfill other people's ambitions and
conventions.
She has at last come to the realisation that she does not love Victor and has no right to marry him,
whereas Aunt Alice has no perception of this.
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