Queenie's Whim, Volume 3 by Rosa Nouchette Carey
Queenie's Whim, Volume 3, by Rosa Nouchette Carey, continues the tangled courtship of Garth Clayton, master of Warstdale quarry, who has long been informally attached to his old friend Dora Cunningham. When Dora, absorbed in nursing her sick sister Florence abroad, again puts off any real commitment to him, Garth returns home wounded and restless, and drifts for comfort to the cottage of Queenie Marriott, the village schoolmistress, and her frail young sister Emmie. There he is drawn by Queenie's warmth, earnestness, and unworldly talk of selfless love, and gradually, without confessing it even to himself, transfers his affections to her, though he still feels bound by years of expectation toward Dora. Disaster strikes when the local bank fails and Garth loses nearly all his savings, throwing the quarry and his family's home, Church-Stile House, into jeopardy. Queenie, who is secretly a considerable heiress (having inherited five thousand a year from Emmie's uncle, Mr. Calcott, a fact she has hidden so as to be loved for herself and to preserve her happy, unpretentious life with Emmie), resolves to save Garth without his knowledge. Knowing his fierce pride would refuse aid traced to her, she persuades the kindly, easily-managed clergyman Mr. Logan to pose as the true lender of the needed money, funneling her own funds through him. The ruse succeeds, Garth is rescued from ruin, and gratitude is showered on Mr. Logan and his scatterbrained sister Miss Cosie, who is sworn to secrecy. A subplot follows the quiet romance of Faith Palmer, one of three spinster sisters at the Evergreens, and Dr. Stewart, a plain-spoken bachelor who renews an old, long-unspoken attachment from ten years before. After a blunt proposal and a difficult scene with the sharp-tongued invalid sister Charity, who must give up Faith's companionship, Faith and Dr. Stewart marry within six weeks, and Faith blossoms into a contented, matronly wife, still faithfully tending her sisters. Meanwhile Cathy, Garth's high-spirited younger sister, departs for London to train as a hospital nurse, leaving the household diminished, and Mr. Chester's grief for his dead child Nan, and his devotion to his suffering wife Gertrude, thread through the narrative with a note of religious consolation. Miss Cosie, true to her nature, inadvertently lets slip to Garth that neither she nor her brother possessed anything like the sum lent him, forcing Mr. Logan to reveal the whole truth: it was Queenie's money and Queenie's plan all along. Garth is stunned, moved, and deeply conflicted. He confesses to Langley, his level-headed elder sister, that he now loves Queenie and has effectively given up Dora, but declares that his pride will not let him speak while he remains her debtor; he resolves to say nothing for up to two years, until he can repay her, and privately vows to set her entirely free in the meantime to see other prospects, rather than seem to trade on her generosity or her fortune. When he next meets Queenie, he thanks her with careful, painful formality about "interest and capital," wounding her deeply; she has hoped for love, not businesslike gratitude, and leaves the interview believing that his pride will keep them permanently apart. Langley, sympathetic to Queenie, is bound by promise not to reveal Garth's true feelings or intentions. Into this uncertainty steps Dora, now returned from the Continent with her sisters Beatrix and Florence. Learning of Queenie's fortune and of the secret loan, and sensing Garth's altered manner, Dora grows watchful and jealous, subtly working to reclaim him under cover of old friendship, arranging a dinner at the Vicarage and steering conversation to needle him about his feelings for Queenie. Garth, though he treats Dora kindly and considers the two of them now safely disentangled, is unaware how far she intends to go to keep him for herself, and the volume closes with Dora privately resolving that she will not let Garth "belong" to anyone else. Underlying threads throughout the volume include Emmie's increasing physical frailty and premonitions of mortality, which cast a shadow of foreboding over Queenie's happiness even as her secret goodness draws Garth ever closer; the contrast between worldly pride (Garth's insistence on independence and repayment) and womanly self-sacrifice (Queenie's willingness to give without expectation of return); and the moral emphasis, voiced repeatedly through Queenie's own philosophy and the novel's religious sensibility, that faithful, unselfish love is never wasted, even when unacknowledged or unrequited in this life. Volume 3 ends with Garth's heart engaged but his lips sealed by pride and debt, Queenie wounded but still hopeful, and Dora newly returned and quietly scheming — leaving the resolution of the central romance suspended for the concluding volume.
By Rosa Nouchette Carey · First published 1881 · Genre: Domestic Fiction, Romance, Victorian Literature · 15 chapters · 82,615 words
First lines
"So she loved, and she was happy, / As if walking in Paradise; / Nay, as heaven he seemed above her, / This love of her own heart's choice. / It was not his birth or riches, / But that he was born to bless, / With the treasure of his wisdom, / And the wealth of his tenderness. " / _Isa Craig-Knox._
Dora's sleep was quite peaceful and unbroken, while Garth tossed / restlessly on his bed half the night, staring open-eyed into the / darkness. She came down in the morning in her pretty travelling / dress looking as fresh and bright as possible. She was not even pale / as she had been the previous evening; possibly the excitement of last / night had stimulated her, and roused her from her sadness.
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Queenie's Whim, Volume 3 is listed on Textopian as a novel by Rosa Nouchette Carey, dated 1881 CE.
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- Work type: Novel
- Author: Rosa Nouchette Carey
- Date: 1881 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Domestic Fiction, Romance, Victorian Literature, Sentimental Fiction, Moral/Didactic Fiction
- Length: 82,615 words
- Structure: 15 chapters, 1,310 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Queenie's Whim, Volume 3 by Rosa Nouchette Carey
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Domestic Fiction — The novel is fundamentally centered on household affairs, family relationships, and intimate domestic interactions, with much of the plot revolving around daily life in small communities like Hepshaw.
- Romance — A central narrative arc involves the romantic relationship between Queenie and Garth Clayton, including misunderstandings, emotional tension, and the evolution toward marriage and domestic bliss.
- Victorian Literature — The novel exemplifies mid-to-late Victorian literary style, conventions, language, and social structures that permeate every aspect of the narrative.
- Sentimental Fiction — The work employs heightened emotional appeals, tender scenes, and sentimentalized treatment of relationships, particularly evident in Emmie's illness, death, and the romantic elements.
Tags
Victorian novel · Coming-of-age · Romance · Female protagonist · Family drama · Domestic fiction · Young adult · British literature · 19th-century fiction · Courtship · Social class · Character study
Contents
- In the Gloaming
- "do you Like me as Well as you did then?"
- "Charity Begins at Home."
- The Swing of the Pendulum
- Changes and Chances
- The Two Conspirators
- "you Know this is a Great Secret."
- Cross Purposes
- "too Many Cooks."
- "have you Nothing to Say to me?"
- "a Golden-Haired Circe."
- "he Belongs to me."
- "why does he not Come and See Us?"
- "Emmie's Letter."
- Garth's Wife