Summary

In Chapter 12, Eustace finalizes his arrangement of the dining room by placing candlesticks in the windows. He lights the tapers, that are set into candlestick holders shaped like the sun and the moon. When Clara wakes up, she is discombobulated and does not know what time it is. She remembers that she is in the laundry and attempts to smooth her visage before joining the dinner party. The conversation at dinner is strained; Chastern muses on Dicken’s proclivity for orphans and Nazaire appraises the other diners with a calculating and sterile gaze. When Mr. Crowe and Dr. Chastern adjourn to speak privately, Arabella asks Clara to help her find a book in the library. As she helps the woman unlock the door, a “certainty come to [Clara] with a strange ease and finality” and she runs instinctively toward the tower (162). Meanwhile...