At the conclusion of "The Jolly Corner" Spencer Brydon recovers consciousness (after swooning at the sight of his double) in the lap of his friend, Alice Staverton. In sharp contrast to the complex and sometimes violent imagery of Brydon's experience throughout the extraordinary middle section of the tale, the mood of the brief, concluding section is mild and conciliatory. Significantly, it is Alice Staverton, not Brydon, who dominates that final scene, both physically and verbally. The barely conscious Brydon is aware, as he comes to, of his head "pillowed in extraordinary softness and faintly refreshing fragrance . . . and he finally knew that Alice Staverton had made her lap an ample and perfect cushion to him." Throughout this section Brydon and Staverton engage in a remarkably conventional and sentimental dialogue. Brydon, for example, remarks,

'Yes—I can only have died. You brought me literally to life. Only,'...