The Argosy, Vol. 9

This is Part the First, Chapter IV of "Bessy Rane" by the author of "East Lynne," serialized in The Argosy (February 1, 1870). The chapter, titled "Alone with the Naked Truth," follows Dr. Oliver Rane as he returns home after a morning spent rescuing two men from drowning at the North Works and tending patients. At home, he retrieves and burns an anonymous letter received from Mrs. Gass—a letter connected to the recent death of Edmund North, which the writer believes resulted from the letter's contents. Alone, Dr. Rane engages in moral reasoning, constructing arguments that the anonymous writer (possibly Mrs. North) bears no responsibility for Edmund's fatal apoplexy, since the letter wasn't intended to cause death. This rationalization collapses when he glimpses his mother's house, and he confronts the "naked truth": Edmund North died because of the letter. Disturbed, he visits his mother, Mrs. Cumberland, where Ellen Adair plays the "Dead March in Saul" on the piano.