The Argosy, Vol. 42

# Lady Valeria, Chapter XXVIII: "Lady Valeria's Last Visitor"

This chapter from an August 1886 serialized Victorian novel centers on Hester Archdale's visit to her friend Mabel Brant, accompanying her reluctant father Sir John. Upon learning that Mabel's mother is Lady Valeria Meynell, Sir John becomes visibly distressed and attempts to avoid meeting her. When they arrive, Hester and Sir John become trapped in an adjoining sitting room while witnessing Lady Valeria's dramatic decline. The ailing woman, expecting a clergyman named Mr. Stannard and someone else whose name she has forgotten, grows agitated about visitors being kept from her. Upon learning that Sir John Archdale is present in the house, she experiences a sudden, violent emotional shock, springing to her feet with rapturous expectation before collapsing. The fragment ends with attendants rushing to her side.