Our Mutual Friend Book 4, Part 18, Chapter 11 Summary

Effect is Given to the Dolls' Dressmmaker's Discovery

  • We look back in on Bella Wilfer (now Bella Rokesmith), who is sewing. There is a knock at the door, and Bella goes to find Mortimer Lightwood standing on the front step. He has come to invite Bella to the wedding of Lizzie Hexam and Eugene Wrayburn.
  • While she's showing Mortimer into the house, Mr. Rokesmith arrives. But he avoids seeing Lightwood and refuses to attend Lizzie's wedding. After all, Rokesmith is really John Harmon, and he knows Lightwood will recognize him if they meet.
  • In any case, there's no time to lose. Lizzie and Eugene need to get married ASAP before Eugene dies, so Bella and Mortimer head off to meet the priest and hightail it to Eugene's bedside.
  • While the Reverend Milvey talks about the wedding in the train station, a passing Bradley Headstone overhears the chatter and nearly faints when he hears that Lizzie Hexam is marrying Eugene. That means Eugene is alive and that Headstone is bound to go to jail… or worse.
  • A few pages later, Eugene and Lizzie are married. Eugene feels like he's wasted his entire life until the moment he has married Lizzie. He almost wishes he could die right away so that Lizzie's last memory of him would be a good one.