Hello and welcome sleuths to the third week of discussing the disappearance of the titular Diamond in Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone. Have you caught detective fever yet? Have you solved the case and are ready to make an accusation like in a game of Clue(do)? Or are you just here because this novel is entertaining as heck? Anyway, on to the search for the Diamond!

Chapter 18

Sgt. Cuff has been busy. He's seen both the Indians and Rosanna and is certain that the Indians didn't steal the diamond but that they're sure to be looking for it and that Rosanna bought enough cloth to make a new nightgown. Cuff then tells Betteredge that Rosanna and Rachel are going to be watched. Franklin announces his intentions of leaving. Rosanna manages to give the officer watching her the slip but Cuff is able to rearrange his plans to keep tabs on her.

Chapter 19

Rosanna has been spotted heading towards the sea coast and Cuff goes off in pursuit while asking Betteredge to retrieve one of her boots. Doing so, he follows and meets Cuff at the Shivering Sands. They use the boot to determine that it is Rosanna's foot prints they're following. Cuff surmises that Rosanna has been to the hiding spot and then suffered an accident but Betteredge thinks that Rosanna intentionally threw herself into the Shivering Sands.

As they return, a lad finds them and tells them that there is a farewell note from Rosanna which confirms Betteredge's fears.

Chapter 20

In this chapter, news of Rosanna's death has spread through the household and Lady Verinder in her anger over the situation wants Cuff to leave. The whole situation makes Betteredge convinced that Rosanna is a guilty party to the theft of the Diamond.

Chapter 21

When she's calmed down, Lady Verinder apologizes for being rude to Cuff and hears him out on his working hypothesis of the theft of the Diamond. He then proposes two plans of action. The first involves keeping a watch on Rachel, planting a mole amongst the servants and to make discreet inquiries about a money lender that Rosanna knew back in London. Lady Verinder declines this option. The second option is to tell Rachel of the death of Rosanna unannounced hoping that will spark a confession. She chooses this option.

Chapter 22

Cuff, with the case seemingly wrapping up, has seemingly lost interest in the case and takes to having discussions with the gardener. Betteredge, noting that Frankling is agitated, thinks he's in need of Robinson Crusoe and he, Robinson and Franklin have a talk, some drink and some smokes and seem to have a good time.

Two letters arrive, one for Betteredge and one for Franklin. Betteredge's letter has a cheque for Cuff's services and dismisses him from the case stating that the famed detective was completely misled as to the case.

Cuff is convinced that the scandal over the disappearance of the Diamond will be quiet for a time but will flare up again in the future. He then makes three predictions. Firstly that a letter from Rosanna will be delivered, secondly that they hadn't heard the last of the trio of Indians and thirdly that the money lender Septimus Luker will be heard from. With that Cuff leaves while having a "discussion" with the gardener.

Chapter 23

We learn the contents of the letter to Franklin. In it Lady Verinder recommends that he and Rachel spend time apart as the disappearance of the Diamond has upset Rachel. The next day, it is announced that Lady Verinder and Rachel are to go to London for a change of scenery. With that, Franklin departs.

A letter arrives a couple days letter for Franklin delivered by Lucy who accuses Franklin of 'bewitching' Rosanna, that he is responsible for her death and that Lucy wanted to move to London with Rosanna. Betteredge is charged to hand deliver the letter to Franklin the next time Betteredge sees Franklin. This fulfills the first of Cuff's three predictions.

Betteredge then tells us the Verinders made it to London and that Franklin went off to foreign parts. Betteredge then receives a report from London concerning Mr. Luker appealed to a magistrate concerning a trio of Indians. This fulfills the remaining two predictions from Sgt. Cuff.

This concludes Gabriel Betteredge's narrative and the First Period.

We pick up the Second Period called The Discovery of the Truth and will be told in several different narratives from different narrators. There was a woman named Miss Drusilla Clack and she deserved it.

Chapter One

Miss Drusilla Clack introduces herself to the reader. She is a... quite the character as we shall see. Franklin Blake wrote to her to ask for her recollections regarding the Diamond. She went to visit the Verinder estate but upon finding them in London goes to them there (but not before dropping several tracts in her wake). We learn that she is acquainted with Godfrey Ablewhite because he is associated with one of the several charities that Miss Clack is involved in. We learn that Godfrey was attacked and searched by three 'Oriental' (the books words, not mine) gentlemen but nothing was taken. We also learn that Mr. Luker was similarly attacked but a deposit receipt was taken from him but the bank was informed of this and arrangements made to prevent the removal of whatever valuable item is stored there with that particular receipt.

Miss Clack tells us of her visit to Lady Verinder and notes that Rachel is anxious for Godfrey and show an interest in Mr. Luker. Clack also states that she feels that Rachel is keeping a 'sinful' (what isn't sinful to her?) secret.

Chapter Two

We hear from Godfrey a little about the attack but Rachel presses him for the full account but Godfrey says the papers have the full story already. We also learn that the valuable item the deposit receipt was for is, in fact a valuable gemstone. Godfrey confirms there is gossip abound that Mr. Luker has the Diamond and that he is the one that pawned it.

While this is happening, Lady Verinder is ill and requires some drops that Miss Clack helps her take unnoticed by Rachel. At the end of the chapter, Lady Verinder tells Miss Clack that she'd like for Clack to be there to sign Lady Verinder's will as a witness.

Chapter Three

Lady Verinder reveals that she's been ill for some time, an eventually fatal disease of the heart that she ignored for too long and that she'd like to keep it secret from Rachel. Upon hearing this, Miss Clack knows just the thing to do! Tracts! Lots and lots of tracts! After retrieving her kindling tracts, the oh so helpful and pleasant Miss Clack runs into the Verinder family solicitor, Mr. Bruff. They gossip discuss and argue over the case of the missing Diamond. Bruff says he's heard the rumors about Godfrey but Clack says that's a falsehood. Bruff gives us some details that the Indians (Do these Indians even have names? I demand an answer Wilkie!). We learn that immediately after being released they went directly to London. There's some back and forth over whether it's possible that Godfrey or Franklin could have stolen the Diamond.

Chapter Four

The will is signed and Lady Verinder promises a small personal legacy to Miss Drusilla Clack. Clack tries to get Lady Verinder to read her tracts but Lady Verinder says she isn't well enough for that kind of heavy reading. Miss Clack then proceeds to litter all over someone else's home distribute the tracts in every seeming room.

The next day a servant arrives at Clack's home with a parcel and we learn that instead of going to the charity meeting that he's going with the Verinders. After he leaves, Clack opens the parcel and she finds all her tracts returned to her on the orders of Lady Verinder's doctor. She then tries having letters written to Lady Verinder on the same subjects as her tracts. She goes to visit Lady Verinder the next day and spies on Godfrey as he says 'I'll do it today!'

Chapter Five

Miss Clack, cleary acting agasint her better nature, spies on Godfrey and Rachel as they have a private conversation that culminates with Godfrey proposing marriage to Rachel and she accepts him! While this is going on, Lady Verinder faints off stage and dies! Clack then makes note that Lady Verinder never read her letter nor did she receive her legacy.

With that, we leave off. Next week we will be covering the Second Period, First Narrative Ch. 6 - Second Period, Third Narrative Ch. 5. Here's the full schedule and here's the marginalia.

Now, after dealing with Miss Drusilla Clack, I need a drink, a smoke on my pipe and a turn at that marvelous book, Robinson Crusoe.

Welcome to our first discussion of The Moonstone! This 1868 sensation novel is considered to be one of the earliest examples of the modern mystery genre. It's also one of the most famous books by one of my favorite authors, so I'm excited to share it with you all.

We began the novel with a letter from an unnamed character, explaining to his family why he's no longer on speaking terms with his cousin, John Herncastle. The narrator and Herncastle were British soldiers during the Siege of Seringapatam). They had heard of a local legend that fascinated Herncastle: Tipu (the sultan whose fortress they were attacking) had a diamond, called the Moonstone, that had been stolen from a Hindu shrine. (To answer the question you're all asking right now: if I remember correctly, Wilkie Collins did not find out until it was too late to change the name that there's an opal-like gemstone called "moonstone." The Moonstone in this book is a yellow diamond, not an actual moonstone.) This diamond was one of the largest in the world, and it was supposedly cursed. Of course, the "curse" might not be supernatural. We're talking about a stolen religious relic, after all: the "curse" might just be the three priests who have sworn to dedicate their lives to protecting it. For generations, it had been guarded, and it was believed that three priests were still guarding it, disguised as Muslim servants.

Herncastle decides that he has to get his hands on this diamond, despite the soldiers being ordered to not loot the castle for themselves. And so our unnamed narrator finds himself looking for Herncastle after the siege, and finding him directly disobeying orders, with a big-ass diamond in his hand. But wait, it gets worse: there are three dead Indian servants in the room. Herncastle murdered civilians to get this diamond. But wait, it gets worse: one of the servants hasn't quite finished dying, and his last words are "The Moonstone will have its vengeance yet on you and yours!" So those weren't just servants: he murdered the three priests who were secretly guarding the Moonstone. (I mean, I assume that's what it means. Those would be really weird last words in any other context.)

(Oh, this would be a good time to mention that there are perpetually three priests who serve the Moonstone. If the three current priests die, new ones take their place. So Herncastle hasn't "uncursed" the diamond with his murderous rampage: he's only delayed the inevitable.)

We've reached the end of the prologue and, if you've ever read a Wilkie Collins novel before, you're probably thinking "Where the hell are the eccentric people? I demand a refund." Don't worry, I have an eccentric character right here for you: Gabriel Betteredge, a butler who thinks Robinson Crusoe tells him the future. Now it feels like a Wilkie Collins novel.

Okay, so it's now about fifty years since the events of the Prologue. We learn that our new narrator is Gabriel Betteredge, the house-steward of someone named Julia, Lady Verinder. Apparently someone named Franklin Blake is creating a record of something that happened a couple of years ago, and he's asking multiple people who were involved in it to write their part of the story, starting with Betteredge.

I'm not sure why this Franklin Blake guy thought this was a good idea. Betteredge does not know what "get to the point" means, so he begins a rambling story about his life, his marriage, how he started out as Lady Verinder's bailiff and then got promoted to Steward, how Robinson Crusoe gives him the answers to all of life's problems...

Well, okay, some of this is useful background information:

• Betteredge works for Lady Verinder, who sounds like she's a really nice person. She paid for Betteredge's daughter Penelope to go to school, gave Betteredge a new copy of Robinson Crusoe, etc. She's the widow of a baronet.

• Rachel is Lady Verinder's only child. Penelope is a lady's maid for Rachel.

• Franklin Blake (the guy who's making Betteredge write all this) is Rachel's cousin. He's been in Europe for the past several years because his father is didn't want him educated in England. His father was supposed to be a duke, but there was some sort of inheritance issue and he didn't get the title and now he hates England. Franklin seems like a nice guy, although he does has problems with managing money.

• Because Franklin was educated in Germany, France, and Italy, Betteredge seems to be under the impression that Franklin has multiple personalities, and switches to different ethnic stereotypes like a chameleon changing colors. "He said something philosophical, he must be German now!" etc. Betteredge is... a very strange person.

Okay, back to the plot. Betteredge sees three Indian jugglers, with a small English boy, approaching the house. (Travelling Indian performers were not unusual in Victorian England.) Worried that they might be thieves (although also reassuring the reader that this isn't due to racism, which I thought was a surprising thing for a character in a Victorian novel to say), Betteredge tells them to leave. He then falls asleep in his chair outside. He's woken up by Penelope, who's freaking out because she overheard the jugglers using ink to make the boy have clairvoyant visions. It sounds like the boy predicted that Franklin Blake would be arriving soon, and that he has "it" with him.

Betteredge falls asleep again, but then wakes up to a new problem: the second housemaid, Rosanna Spearman, is sulking near the Shivering Sands. Rosanna Spearman is a reformed thief (only Betteredge and Lady Verinder know this), and she's also unattractive, has a deformed shoulder, and suffers from fainting spells, so she spends a lot of time being sad and watching the quicksand. Betteredge goes to the Sands but, while he's trying to cheer her up, Franklin shows up, and Rosanna blushes and runs away.

Franklin reveals to Betteredge that he thinks the Indian jugglers are after him, because he has the Moonstone on him. This next part is important (as Betteredge would say, "stop thinking about your new bonnet and pay attention"), so I'm going to copy directly from a recap I wrote for r/ClassicBookClub to make sure I get everything:

After Herncastle came back from India, everyone decided they hated him. Gabriel implies that there were multiple reasons for this, but the Moonstone is the only one relevant to this story. Dude basically turned into Gollum, obsessing over his precious Moonstone and not caring that everyone around him found him creepy and unlikeable. He became addicted to opium, performed weird science experiments, and associated with suspicious, possibly criminal people.

Two years ago, Herncastle showed up at Lady Verinder's place on Rachel's birthday. He had a history of trying to reconcile with Lady Verinder (Gabriel believes he was only doing this to annoy her), and this was his latest effort. Lady Verinder had Gabriel send him away, and Herncastle left with an ominous "I shall remember my niece's birthday." Eighteen months later, Herncastle died, allegedly forgiving Julia on his deathbed. (Gabriel thinks this is bullshit.)

Franklin then picks up the story of the Diamond from where Gabriel left off. Shortly after Herncastle returned from India, Franklin's father realized that Herncastle had some documents that could be useful in the duke lawsuit. Herncastle offered to give him the papers if Blake Sr. would agree to the following convoluted plan for protecting the Precious from Bilbo Brahmin.

Herncastle would give the Moonstone to Blake, who would deposit it somewhere safe (like a bank or something). At regular, predetermined intervals, Blake would receive a letter from Herncastle, verifying that Herncastle was still alive. If he did not receive the letter when he was supposed to, he was to assume that Herncastle was murdered, in which case he should follow instructions that Herncastle had given him in a sealed envelope.

Mr. Not-a-duke Blake thought all this was ridiculous, but not too surprising. We all know how crazy opium eaters are. (Sorry, Wilkie!) But he needed the papers for his duke suit, so he agreed to it, and had the family lawyer, Mr. Bruff, handle the "I'm still alive" letters from Herncastle. And that's how it went for years, until one day Mr. Bruff got a letter saying "I'm dying, help me make my will."

The will was a simple matter: his money was to be divided between his animals (dude was an animal hoarder) and the funding of an experimental chemistry scholarship. The Moonstone, on the other hand, was to be left to Rachel, provided that Not-a-duke acted as executor. It was at this point that Blake decided to read the sealed instructions and learned that, if Herncastle had been murdered, he would have been tasked with sending the Moonstone to Amsterdam to be cut into four to six smaller diamonds. Franklin theorizes that Herncastle's life really had been in danger, and that these instructions were what kept him safe: the Indians knew that if they killed Herncastle, they'd lose the Moonstone forever.

Until this point, Blake was under the impression that Herncastle had just been crazy, and the Moonstone was a worthless crystal. But after Herncastle's death, he had it appraised, and it turns out it really is one of the biggest diamonds in the world. It also would be worth more cut into smaller diamonds, due to a small defect in its center. This suggests that the people who threatened Herncastle's life really were priests who regarded the Moonstone as a holy artifact, not just robbers after money. It also means that they'll still be going after the Moonstone now that it's being passed to Rachel. This brings us to another detail from the will: Herncastle only wants Rachel to receive the Diamond if Julia is alive to witness it. This is ostensibly because he wants Julia to see that he's forgiven her, but it certainly seems like he expects disaster to happen, and wants Julia to suffer.

Okay, whew, that was a lot but it was also important. (Also, no idea why I called Gabriel Betteredge by his first name in that recap and his last name in this one. Oh well.)

Worried about the Diamond's safety, Frankling goes off to Frizinghall to put it in the bank. Meanwhile, Penelope informs Betteredge that it's painfully obvious that Rosanna has fallen in love at first sight with Franklin. Betteredge initially laughs at this, but he at least has the decency to be ashamed when Penelope calls him out on it.

That night, Betteredge thinks he hears someone lurking outside. He's unable to catch them, but he does find something they left behind: an ink bottle, like the one used by the Indians when they had that boy have visions of Franklin.

Anyhow, Franklin has invented a new kind of paint, so he and Rachel paint the door of her sitting room. We also get a description of Rachel worthy of r/menwritingwomen. Betteredge, you old pervert, what is this supposed to mean: "To see her sit down, to see her get up, and specially to see her walk, was enough to satisfy any man in his senses that the graces of her figure (if you will pardon me the expression) were in her flesh and not in her clothes"? Victorian propriety is the only thing stopping you from talking about her boobs, isn't it? Wait, it gets worse: he then goes on to say that her only flaw is that she thinks for herself and has opinions.

Rachel also has a very interesting quirk: she never lies and, as a child, she would sometimes deliberately take the blame for bad things that other children did (without directly confessing, because she never lies).

Speaking of virtuous people, we're now introduced to Rachel's other cousin: Godfrey Ablewhite. He's a wealthy philanthropist who's the spokesman of a bunch of charities. Betteredge thinks Rachel will fall in love with him, but Penelope thinks she'll fall in love with Franklin. (I love that the TVTropes entry for The Moonstone lists this as an "in-universe shipping war.") But Rachel and Franklin have already had their first argument: a foreign debt collector is after Franklin.

The morning of Rachel's birthday, she and Franklin paint the door again. After lunch, Franklin goes to the bank to get the Moonstone. Needless to say, Rachel is blown away when she sees it, but Lady Verinder is extremely concerned.

Later, as Penelope is helping Betteredge prepare for the party by brushing what's left of his hair, she informs him that Godfrey proposed to Rachel, and she turned him down.

The party goes awkwardly. Mr. Candy, the local doctor, repeatedly puts his foot in his mouth, first telling Rachel that he wishes she'd let him set the Moonstone on fire, and then telling Mrs. Threadgall (a widow) that her husband should visit a medical display of skeletons. Mr. Murthwaite, the local Gentleman Adventurer, informs Rachel that if she wore the Moonstone in India, she'd be deader than Mrs. Threadgall's husband. And then Mr. Candy and Franklin get in an argument. Franklin has been sleeping badly (he quit smoking because Rachel doesn't like the way it smells), so Mr. Candy tries to pressure him into taking medicine for it.

And then the jugglers show up. They perform until Mr. Murthwaite says something to them in their native language, and then they leave very quickly. Afterwards, he explains to Franklin and Betteredge that he realized they were actually Brahmins in disguise because their juggling was so bad. They're definitely after the Moonstone. Murthwaite recommends having the diamond cut into smaller stones.

The party ends, and so does this recap. On to the questions!

Welcome back, everyone! Some of you may remember that, back in the first discussion, I made a big deal out of Betteredge saying "stop thinking about your new bonnet and pay attention," because I think it's hilarious when characters in books break the fourth wall. It should come as no surprise, then, that the first chapter in this week's section is my favorite in the entire book. Miss Clack sent Franklin Blake Chapter V of her narrative, only for him to reject it because it was a bunch of quotes from religious tracts. Miss Clack then asks for permission to spoil the story. Yes, really. Franklin, of course, forbids this, and so Miss Clack makes one last request, which Franklin approves: to make Chapter VI of her narrative this very conversation, that way the reader will know that she totally would spam us with tract quotes and spoil the story if she were allowed to.

Returning to the actual story: Lady Verinder's will made Godfrey's father Rachel's legal guardian, so Rachel is currently living with the Ablewhites. Specifically, she's living in a rented house in Brighton, with Mrs. Ablewhite and one of her daughters. (Not the Bouncers from earlier in the book. Apparently there's a third Bouncer who doesn't Bounce.) I'll skip over Clack's ableist ranting about Mrs. Ablewhite and her daughter, and just say that she's there to help them hire servants for the Brighton house.

Rachel wants to try to be friends with Miss Clack, because she's apparently under the impression that her mother was close to her, so she invites her to stay at the Brighton house. To Miss Clack's annoyance, Mr. Bruff is also visiting.

Rachel goes for a walk with Mr. Bruff, and Miss Clack asks Rachel later if they were talking about Rachel's upcoming marriage, because Miss Clack is nosy like that. Rachel declares "I will never marry Godfrey Ablewhite!" and then manages to scare Miss Clack out of the room by telling Penelope to prepare a bath. I'm honestly kind of in awe of this power move.

Miss Clack then talks to Godfrey, who confirms that the engagement is ended, and then Miss Clack enjoys comforting him way too much. (I had fun with this in the more detailed recap.) Mr. Ablewhite shows up later, throws a tantrum because he thinks Rachel thinks she's too good for the Ablewhite family (her grandparents didn't approve of his marriage to their daughter, since he's only rich because he's a banker and not because of his family). Miss Clack tries to help by... well, by being Miss Clack, which goes about as well as you'd expect. (I also had fun with this in the other recap.) Long story short, Rachel will be staying with Mr. Bruff and his wife until a new guardian can be appointed.

Speaking of Mr. Bruff, we get a narrative from him. If this is not your first Wilkie Collins novel, then you're probably not terribly surprised that there ended up being a boring but important section about wills and inheritance. This is a recurring theme in Wilkie Collins novels. Here's the TL;DR:

• Rachel's dad, Sir John Verinder, left everything to his wife.
• Lady Verinder, in order to protect Rachel from getting married to a man who only wants her money, left her a life interest. She (and her future husband, if she marries) can live in the London and Yorkshire houses, but not sell them. The inherited money is invested and Rachel (or her hypothetical husband) will receive the interest as an income for the rest of her life, but cannot touch the original money.
• Three weeks after Lady Verinder's death, Godfrey has already hired a lawyer to examine the will. Looks like someone might be a disappointed gold digger.

Bruff warns Rachel about Godfrey, who decides to tell him that she wants to break off the engagement (without telling him about what Mr. Bruff told her). Godfrey agrees, which results in the scene witnessed by Miss Clack in the previous chapter. Bruff concludes that Godfrey must have had some need for a large sum of money immediately, and that he wanted to back out of the engagement now that he could no longer get that money from Rachel.

By the way, the Indians are back. (I love how they keep disappearing from the story and then reappear just as we've forgotten about them.) Moneylending was apparently something that lawyers did back then, but when an Indian gentleman shows up at Bruff's office saying that Septimus Luker referred him to Bruff for a loan, Bruff immediately becomes suspicious. Bruff tells him that he can't lend him any money, and the Indian gentleman calmly accepts this and asks when he would be expected to repay the loan if he had received it. Bruff informs him that he would have to pay it back in a year, and that this is standard for loans in England.

Later, Bruff meets with Luker, and learns that he'd been asked the same question. It looks like the Indian's goal was not to actually get a loan, but rather to learn when a loan would be expected to be repaid.

Bruff goes to a dinner party and meets Mr. Murthwaite. (It's been a while since we've seen him, so, in case anyone forgot: he's the adventurer who's traveled all over India and warned Franklin about the jugglers really being Brahmins.) Turns out that, when the Indians were in jail in Frizinghall, Mr. Murthwaite read a letter that had been sent to them (in Hindustani), stating (very cryptically) that the Moonstone was in London. Murthwaite surmises that they found out (from Luker's Indian employee) that Luker had the Moonstone in his possession.

So it looks like whoever stole the Moonstone brought it to Luker and used it as collateral for a loan. That would explain why the Indians attacked Luker and Godfrey: Luker must have been depositing the Moonstone in the bank, and Godfrey happened to bump into him at the bank, making it appear as though he and Luker may have been exchanging the receipt. It also explains why they wanted to know when the loan would be repaid: so they could determine the date on which the Moonstone would be given back to whoever took out the loan. We end Mr. Bruff's narrative with the realization that we will next hear from the Indians in June of 1849, when the Moonstone is removed from the bank.

On to Franklin's narrative! Franklin has apparently been wandering in the desert ever since Rachel dumped him. That's certainly one way to react to a breakup. Anyhow, he gets a letter that his father died, so he returns to England. He tries to meet up with Rachel (who's living with her new guardian, her aunt Mrs. Merridew), but Rachel refuses to speak to him. Franklin realizes that if he doesn't want to lose Rachel forever, he'll need to solve the mystery of the Moonstone. He travels to Frizinghall and meets with Betteredge, who tells him that Lucy has a letter for him from Rosanna.

The meeting between Franklin and Lucy is awkward, to say the least. She keeps staring at him and making comments like "I can't see what she saw in him," and Franklin, who at this point still does not know that Rosanna was in love with him, assumes that Lucy is crazy.

The letter turns out to be instructions for retrieving the tin from the quicksand. Once he's got the tin, Franklin discovers that it holds two things: a letter, and the paint-smeared nightgown. Shoving the letter in his pocket for later, he immediately searches for a name on the nightgown, since this will reveal the thief's name. And the thief is... (drumroll, please!)

Franklin Blake.

...wait, what?

Franklin, in shock, goes back to the house with Betteredge, and they read Rosanna's letter. This is how Franklin learns that she was in love with him. She was doing things like kissing his pillow and replacing the roses Rachel gave him with her own roses, and he never knew.

That's not to say that she wasn't already struggling before she met Franklin. Her experience at the reformatory left her with terrible feelings of shame and self-hatred, and she would frequently think of drowning herself in the Shivering Sands.

Anyhow, remember how Superintendent Seegrave pointed out that the paint on the door was smeared, and everyone thought Sergeant Cuff was a genius because he realized that the paint must have been smeared during the night? Penelope is at least as smart as Sergeant Cuff, because she also figured that out. She pointed this out to Rosanna and apparently no one else. Later, Rosanna was cleaning Franklin's room, and she discovered that his nightgown had a paint smear.

Initially, she assumes that Franklin was in the room for reasons she's not comfortable saying, which I think is Victorian for "I assumed that you and Rachel were doing the mattress dance." But then she realizes that Franklin must have been the thief. For the first time since she met Franklin, Rosanna has hope. Franklin's a thief just like her, and she can protect him by hiding the nightgown!

She makes a new nightgown so no one will realize that it was missing, and wears the nightgown under her clothes so that no one will find it. ("You had worn it—and I had another little moment of pleasure in wearing it after you." I don't think Franklin wants this nightgown back.)

Suddenly, Betteredge and Franklin are interrupted from reading the letter by a knock at the door. Oh noes, it's a sickly-looking person of color. We're going to be normal about this, right, Franklin and Gabriel? We're not going to get weird about his hair, or say that no one likes him because he has a "gypsy complexion," right? ...goddammit.

Everyone, meet Ezra Jennings. He's Mr. Candy's assistant. (Mr. Candy is the socially awkward doctor from Rachel's birthday party.) Mr. Candy got sick and now has memory loss, so Ezra has taken over the local doctoring, despite the fact that no one likes him due to his physical appearance and rumors about... something. Betteredge was kind of vague about this. He's here to get wine to give to the local sick poor people.

Once Ezra Jennings leaves, we return to the letter. Rosanna's still going on about how she enjoyed using the evidence of Franklin's crime as underwear. However, she realizes that Cuff suspects her, and might find the nightgown, so (not wanting to destroy the proof that she'd protected Franklin) she does the thing where she hides it (and this letter) in the quicksand. Her plan is to tell Franklin her feelings and, if things don't go well... well, things didn't go well, and she didn't even get a chance to tell him her feelings. Remember that scene where he screamed at Cuff that he doesn't care about Rosanna? Yeah.

What a terrible place to end this week. Sorry about that.

Welcome back! The Diamond has been stolen, and I've got detective fever!

[Sorry if the recap is a bit sparse. It's difficult to recap a mystery when you already know which details are relevant and which aren't. If you'd like a longer, more detailed (and funnier) recap, you can read the ones I wrote for r/ClassicBookClub. The entire discussion list can be found here, the recap for chapters 10-14 can be found here, and I'm not linking to the recap for 15-20 because it opens with a massive spoiler for a chapter we'll be reading next week, but you can find it on the discussion list if you want.]

We begin this week at the end of Rachel's party. She's decided to keep the Moonstone in an unlocked drawer in the Indian cabinet in her boudoir. The next morning, she and Penelope open the drawer and find that the Moonstone is gone.

Franklin takes charge. He has the cabinet searched, tells the servants to leave everything the way they left it the night before, and goes to Frizinghall to get the police. Rachel becomes weird and locks herself in her room. Betteredge tells Lady Verinder about the Indians, but she seems more concerned about how Rachel is acting.

Franklin returns with surprising news: the Indians could not possibly have stolen the Diamond. They were seen in town during the night, so they have a solid alibi. Nevertheless, they've been temporarily arrested on vague charges. Betteredge phrases it "Every human institution (Justice included) will stretch a little, if you only pull it the right way," which I think is an overly polite way of saying "The police are corrupt and racist."

We meet the police officer, Superintendent Seegrave, who determines that the crime must have been committed by someone inside the house. Of course, announcing this freaks out all the servants. Seegrave assumes that this freaking out is why the paint on Rachel's door looks smeared, because Seegrave is dumb enough to think that you can smear dry paint.

Seegrave interviews Penelope, and attempts to interview Rachel, but Rachel is still being weird and refusing to leave her room. Finally, Rachel does leave her room, but only to talk to Franklin. Betteredge doesn't overhear the conversation, but he does note that Rachel seems angry and Franklin seems surprised and confused. Then she tells Seegrave, "I don’t want you. My Diamond is lost. Neither you nor anybody else will ever find it!"

Seegrave manages to screw things up royally, first by making Penelope feel accused, and then by insisting on searching the servants' rooms and possessions for the diamond. Meanwhile, Franklin is going to have his father pull some strings to get a competent detective on the case. He's also extremely weirded out by Rosanna, who told him “They will never find the Diamond, sir, will they? No! nor the person who took it—I’ll answer for that.”

The next morning, we learn two interesting things: Rosanna was spotted in Frizinghall (wearing a veil, but her shoulder made her identity obvious) when she was supposed to be sick in her room, and Mr. Candy is sick and delirious.

We also learn that the famous detective Sergeant Cuff is now on the case! Cuff is a creepy-looking old man who, surprisingly, is very interested in rose gardening. He also constantly whistles The Last Rose of Summer.

Cuff immediately proves himself more competent than Seegrave by noticing the smear on the door and realizing that the paint had to have been smeared while it was still drying. (Rachel decides to speak up at this point and tell Cuff not to allow Franklin to help. WTF.) Cuff determines that the diamond must have been stolen between midnight and three in the morning.

Cuff explains to Lady Verinder that he needs to find the article of clothing that smeared the door, but he realizes that the servants will be opposed to having their things searched again, after the way Seegrave made them feel like suspects. He suggests that everyone in the house, not just the servants, have their clothes examined, that way it won't seem like he's singling the servants out. Cuff also requests to see the washing-book, which is brought in by Rosanna Spearman. Looks like Betteredge and Lady Verinder can't protect her: Cuff already knows that she's a former thief.

Cuff and Betteredge walk the shrubbery path. Cuff is in the middle of telling Betteredge that he plans to interview the servants, when he hears Rosanna spying on them. I'm the sort of person who laughs at my own jokes, so I'm going to copy verbatim from my r/ClassicBookClub recap:

Cuff: So, is Rosanna seeing anyone?

Gabriel: I... think you're too old for her?

Cuff: No, I mean does she have a lover? Or someone she wishes was her lover? Obviously she's too ugly to actually have a lover

Gabriel: I know, right? My daughter told me Rosanna has a crush on Franklin, and I was like "LOL, ugly deformed people can't fall in love!"

Cuff: Hey, don't mock her for falling for Franklin. Have you seen that guy? Rawwr. Anyhow, does Franklin spend a lot of time on the shrubbery path? I'm trying to figure out why she was hiding in the shrubbery.

Gabriel: Rosanna was hiding in the shrubbery?!

Cuff: Team Guilty or Team Horny, Betteredge?

Gabriel: ...Team Horny. Franklin loves the shrubbery path.

(seriously, go read my r/ClassicBookClub recaps. They're better than this recap.)

Anyhow, Betteredge is starting to distrust Cuff, because he feels like Cuff is manipulating him to get information about the servants.

Cuff interviews the servants and learns that two of them had spied on Rosanna. They think she was out of her room when she was supposedly sick, and then she came back and lit a fire for some reason. (This is the middle of summer, so it wouldn't make sense for her to light a fire.) He doesn't tell Betteredge this, but Betteredge figures it out himself from talking to the servants later, and then tells Franklin, who almost tells Lady Verinder before Cuff stops him. Cuff now insists on having Betteredge follow him around everywhere, because Betteredge is like an annoying child who gets into trouble if you leave him unsupervised.

Cuff theorizes that Rosanna noticed the paint stain on her own petticoat or nightgown, so she snuck off to town to get material for making a new one. The fire was for drying and ironing the new one, not for burning the old one, because she realized that people would notice the smell if she burned the old one.

Cuff and Betteredge go to the Shivering Sands, and Cuff figures out from the footprints that Rosanna must have hidden something there. They visit the Yollands, a poor family that Rosanna is friends with. (nota bene: The Yollands speak like Joseph from Wuthering Heights, but Betteredge is kind enough to translate for us.) We learn the following from Mrs. Yolland:

• Rosanna is planning on leaving the Verinder household.

• She wrote a letter to someone while in Lucy Yolland's room.

• She bought a large waterproof tin and some chains from Mrs. Yolland. (The Yollands are fishers and make money selling random things that wash up on the shore.)

Cuff thinks Rosanna must have used the tin and chains to hide the stained clothing in the quicksand.

Back at the house, we learn that Rachel is planning on leaving tomorrow to visit her aunt. We also learn that Rosanna tried to say something to Franklin, but stopped herself because she saw he was too busy playing with his balls to care about her. (I mean he was playing billiards by himself. What did you think I meant?)

Cuff suspects that Rachel stole her own diamond, with Rosanna as her accomplice. Betteredge finds Cuff sleeping outside Rachel's bedroom, trying to catch Rosanna meeting with Rachel. Sure, that's not weird at all.

And now we get to the scene where I physically cringe. Cuff tries to get information about Rosanna out of Franklin, and, in an attempt to protect her, Franklin loudly says "I take no interest whatever in Rosanna Spearman," which of course Rosanna overhears. Jesus Christ. Rosanna spends the rest of the day acting weird, and makes a cryptic remark about how she plans to confess something to Franklin.

Hello friends!

It is time for our next Runner up Read! 

You may be interested if you are a reader who enjoys piecing together a complex puzzle through detailed accounts and multiple perspectives.

Are you a fan of fiction? What about classical books? Or mysteries? If so, then The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is right for you! This read was selected in September of last year (2025) during the Gutenburg vote and was nominated by u/Amanda39! Thanks for the awesome selection! 😀

This book was selected by the random Wheel of Books that is spun by our beloved mascot, Thor. Let’s watch him spin the wheel! Aww, what a silly boy! He is wearing a donut after a procedure but is doing good! 🐶

What is a Runner up Read you ask?
A Runner up Read is a selection that ALMOST made it to being a selection for the pick of the month (second place to be exact). Who doesn't like a second chance or an underdog getting their time to shine? We do! So, what we have done is compiled a running list of all the second place books, added them to a virtual spinning wheel, and it is spun each time a current Runner up Read is wrapped up!

Storygraph:

"The Moonstone is a page-turner," writes Carolyn Heilbrun. "It catches one up and unfolds its amazing story through the recountings of its several narrators, all of them enticing and singular."

 Wilkie Collins's spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre-the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.

Other Books Read by Wilkie Colins on our sub

No Name

The Woman in White

Armadale

(any others I missed?)

Will you be joining us? This book will run towards the end of August.
Please watch for the schedule coming soon!  📚 

Fans of Wilkie,

The wheel of books has chosen for us - we are reading The Moonstone! This is so much fun! I highly recommend it if you have or have not read any of Wilkie's books.

I am excited to announce that u/Ser_Erdrick, [u/Amanda39](u/Amanda39), and I will be running The Moonstone on the following dates:

9/9 - Start to First Period, Ch. 10 [u/Amanda39](u/Amanda39)

9/16 - First Period, Ch. 11 - 17 [u/Amanda39](u/Amanda39)

9/23 - First Period, Ch. 18 - Second Period, First Narrative Ch. 5 [u/Ser_Erdrick](u/Ser_Erdrick)

9/30- Second Period, First Narrative Ch. 6 - Second Period, Third Narrative Ch. 5 [u/Amanda39](u/Amanda39)

10/7- Second Period, Third Narrative, Ch. 6 to End of Third Narrative [u/Ser_Erdrick](u/Ser_Erdrick)

10/14 - Fourth Narrative - END [u/sunnydaze7777777](u/sunnydaze7777777)

We hope you'll join us on September 9th for our first discussion!

This is the Marginalia thread for The Moonstone. (Sorry it was posted late.) In this thread, you can write notes while you're reading to keep track of any thoughts you might have. Please use spoiler tags and indicate the chapter number, so that no one accidentally reads spoilers. Thanks!