Summary

In Part 1, Chapter 3, or “Evangeline: Newgate Prison, London, 1840,” Evangeline was awoken after the first night in her cell. Olive, a fellow cellmate, introduced herself. While speaking with Olive, Evangeline felt embarrassed by her situation with Cecil. She remembered that her vicar father insisted that “a woman’s greatest possession was her chastity” (42). Her life in Tunbridge Wells sheltered her from the harshness of the real world. About a year prior, Evangeline had been forced from the vicarage soon after her father’s death. With the help of the bishop, she found work and lodgings as a governess for the two young children of the Whitstone family. Now, Evangeline felt the effects of her sheltered youth within the vicarage. She did not have friends with enough status to testify about her character and knew no one outside the Whitstones in London. Although...