The Moonstone

After Rachel has moved out, an Indian man visits Mr. Bruff at his office. The man says that Mr. Luker, the pawnbroker and moneylender, sent him. The Indian man is hoping to borrow some money, as Mr. Luker has already refused him. Mr. Bruff likewise declines. The Indian man asks how long Mr. Bruff allows for a loan, and Mr. Bruff states that he lends money for a period of up to one year.

The next day, Mr. Bruff meets with Mr. Luker. Luker explains that he was unsettled by the Indian man, who had previously followed him around, and sent him to Bruff to get away. The Indian man asked Luker the same question about the time period for a loan.

The following evening, Mr. Bruff meets Mr. Murthwaite, the researcher who specializes in Indian languages and culture, and who was present the night the diamond was stolen in Yorkshire. Mr. Bruff explains that he thinks one of the Indian men who were lurking around the Verinder house has been to see him, and seems interested in the terms of a loan.

Mr. Murthwaite offers his interpretation of what he thinks is happening: The Indians believe that whoever has stolen the diamond has pawned it to Mr. Luker, and (if the term is one year) will be redeeming their loan and taking possession of the diamond again in June 1849, one year after it was stolen and pawned. Confirming the terms of the loan allows the Indians to anticipate when the diamond is going to be changing hands.

The narrative is now resumed by Franklin Blake in the spring of 1849. Franklin has been travelling since the previous summer, and often doesn’t receive letters from England without lengthy delays. Franklin learns that his father has died; this means he will have to return to England to deal with the inheritance and legal affairs. He also learns that Rachel has ended her engagement to Godfrey.

In England, Franklin immediately goes to see Rachel, who is staying with her aunt Merridew, her new guardian. However, Rachel continues to refuse to see him. Franklin is frustrated that Rachel is still inexplicably angry with him for some reason concerning the disappearance of the diamond. He decides he is going to go to the Verinder house in Yorkshire and find out what happened to the diamond once and for all.

When Franklin Blake arrives in Yorkshire, Gabriel Betteredge is happy to see him. Betteredge tells Franklin that there is a letter for him, written by Rosanna Spearman before her death almost a year prior. The letter is with Lucy Yolland; Franklin plans to go and retrieve it immediately.

Franklin and Betteredge get the letter from Lucy. It contains precise instructions from Rosanna. She tells them to go to the Shivering Sands when the tide is changing, find a chain hidden near some rocks, and pull on it to retrieve a buried box. Franklin follows the instructions and retrieves a waterproof box submerged in the sand. The box contains a letter and a nightgown with a smear of paint on it—this is the incriminating garment that the thief must have been wearing when they brushed up against wet paint while stealing the diamond. Thinking that he is about to solve the mystery, Franklin inspects the nightgown and realizes that it is his own, as his name is sewn onto the tag.

Betteredge and Franklin are stunned and confused. Franklin opens the letter. In the letter, Rosanna explains that she was in love with Franklin. The morning after the diamond went missing, she found the nightgown while tidying up his room, and quickly realized that it must mean Franklin had stolen the diamond. This information only made her love him more—she hid the incriminating garment, and bought fabric to make a new one. Thus, theories about what Rosanna did after the theft were almost correct, but she was protecting Franklin, not Rachel or herself.

Franklin Blake cannot bear to read all of Rosanna’s letter, but Betteredge does. Rosanna describes how she hoped Franklin would lose interest in Rachel, but when she could tell he was not going to, she decided to die by suicide.

Franklin Blake decides to return to London. Before he goes, he asks Betteredge if he could have been drunk or walking in his sleep—these are the only two theories that would seem to explain how Franklin could have unwittingly stolen the diamond. Betteredge affirms that Franklin was certainly not drunk, as he only had a small glass of brandy before going to bed. He points out that, even if Franklin somehow took the diamond without recalling it, that wouldn’t explain what happened to the diamond afterwards.

In London, Franklin meets with Mr. Bruff and shows him the nightgown. Mr. Bruff concedes that Rachel seems to think that Franklin stole the diamond, but points out that the stained nightgown is not conclusive proof: Someone else could have been wearing the nightgown. Mr. Bruff suspects that Rosanna showed the nightgown to Rachel, persuading her that Franklin stole the diamond, but he questions whether Rosanna is innocent.

Franklin is desperate to speak with Rachel directly, and convinces Mr. Bruff to invite her to visit him. Rachel won’t know that Franklin is also there, and he can ambush her.

At Mr. Bruff’s house, Rachel walks into the room where Franklin is waiting. He is overcome by “the woman [he] loved coming nearer and nearer to [him]” (350), and begins kissing her passionately. Rachel pushes him aside and rebukes him for the way he has acted. She finally explains that she saw him take the diamond, and has been covering for him ever since.

Franklin demands that she explain exactly what she saw. Rachel says that she was in her bedroom, with the door slightly ajar so that she could see into the sitting room. She couldn’t sleep, and saw Franklin (dressed in his nightgown) come in, open the cabinet, and take the diamond out. He left the room with the diamond.

At first, Rachel thought Franklin was desperate for money, and was willing to offer him money herself. She became angry when she saw him going along with the investigation, pretending to be innocent. However, she also wasn’t willing to contribute to him being caught. Franklin vows that he will find a way to prove his innocence to her.

Mr. Bruff and Franklin discuss what to do next. Mr. Bruff thinks about his conversation with Mr. Murthwaite, and the notion of whoever pawned the diamond coming back for it after one year has elapsed. Bruff proposes they closely monitor Mr. Luker’s shop in late June, which is only a few weeks away, to see if anyone comes to claim the diamond. Franklin agrees, but he is impatient, and suggests they get Sergeant Cuff involved as well. However, Cuff has retired and moved to Ireland; Franklin leaves word for him to get in contact as soon as possible.

Franklin also tries to track down Godfrey Ablewhite, and learns that Godfrey got engaged to someone else after the end of his relationship with Rachel. This second engagement was broken as well, since Godfrey was suspiciously interested in her family’s finances. After that, Godfrey inherited some money and went abroad.

Franklin goes to Yorkshire, where he meets with Mr. Candy, the local doctor who was present at Rachel’s birthday party. Candy has suffered from ill health ever since the party, and this has affected his memory. He has something he wanted to tell Franklin, but he can’t recall what it was.

After meeting with Dr. Candy, Franklin runs into Ezra Jennings, Candy’s assistant. Franklin explains that he wishes Candy could remember more about what happened on the night of Rachel’s birthday. Jennings explains that he took care of Candy when Candy was first ill and delirious with fever in the period immediately after the birthday and the theft, and wrote down everything Candy said. However, Jennings is not sure if it would be ethical to share these notes with Franklin Blake. Jennings shares more about his own history with Franklin: He was once falsely accused of a crime, and this damaged his reputation. Most people also don’t like Jennings due to his dark and somewhat sinister appearance. Jennings is also slowly dying of a painful disease, and takes opium to cope with the pain.

Franklin Blake is touched by Jennings’s story, and confides that Rachel says she saw Franklin take the diamond. Jennings asks if Franklin has ever consumed opium, which Franklin denies. Franklin does recall that, after weeks of sleeping poorly due to quitting tobacco, he slept very soundly on the night that the diamond was stolen. Jennings thinks it sounds like someone might have given opium to Franklin, and promises to look at the notes he took during Candy’s illness.

Franklin and Jennings go to look at the manuscripts of the notes. Franklin recalls that on the night of the birthday, he and Mr. Candy disagreed about whether opium would be helpful to him. Jennings sees this as further evidence that Candy might have secretly given opium to Franklin. The two men look at Jennings’s transcripts: While they are very spotty and fragmented, Jennings has filled in some of the gaps based on inference, and they conclude that Candy was trying to confess to having secretly given opium to Franklin Blake. Candy, with help from Godfrey Ablewhite, snuck the opium into a glass of brandy, which Franklin drank unwittingly.

While this information resolves the mystery of how Franklin took the diamond without any memory of it, it doesn’t explain what happened to the diamond afterwards. Jennings proposes an experiment: They will recreate the events of the birthday as closely as possible at the Verinder house, Franklin will take opium again, and they will observe what he does. They write to Rachel to ask if they can use the Verinder house to stage the experiment.