Shades

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On Wednesday morning another telegram came. Frances heard the gate swing and click closed but she did not go to see who called, nor answer the knock on the door. Victor's mother opened it herself and she came to the living-room with the envelope in her hand and tore the seal and unfolded the paper, looking up, her eyes moist, "Victor will be here at twelve."

Frances took the telegram and she read it:
The train at twelve. Wednesday.
Sent with my love. Victor.

Frances folded it and put it on the table. She looked at it a moment, lying there, and then she took it up again and she went upstairs with it and she put it in the musical-box. It belonged there, that strangely worded message . . . sent to you with my love . . . The train at twelve. Wednesday.

It was a quarter to eleven. Frances went to her cupboard and she opened it. She searched among the skirts and blouses, the slight, elegant dresses that Aunt Alice had had made for her. She found her old travelling dress that she had worn on the day that she had come from St Matthias. She took it out and she laid it on the bed. She took her walking boots from her trunk and she took her cape.

She unpinned her hair from its arrangement on the top of her head and she brushed it and tied it back at the nape of her neck. Then she went downstairs.

Aunt Alice said, "Frances, dearest, you are not meeting Victor like that, are you?" Gently admonishing. "I have just told the groom to get the trap ready so he can drive us both to the station. The wind is chilly but I'd hoped you'd try the costume Miss White delivered yesterday. I had it in mind especially for his home-coming. You look so pale in that dark cape . . . "

"I won't go in the trap, Aunt Alice. I wish to walk and I want to speak to Victor alone."

Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?

Read the passage in the left column before answering the questions below:

Why is Frances staying in Grahamstown with Victor's mother? (4)

[Need help?]

Frances has been sent to Grahamstown by her mother after she announced that she had had sex with Victor. She had blurted out this confession in anger that her mother was punishing Benedict and Dorcas for their similar transgression but ignoring the real sin of Dorcas's father being able to convert to Christianity so as to rid himself of an unwanted second wife, and so cast this wife and her children into utter destitution. In true Victorian fashion, however, Frances's mother believes that sex is the worse sin — and is indeed a consummation of marriage. Frances must therefore marry Victor — and has to be sent away to devote her time to preparation for her wedding.

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What is so strange about the telegram? (2)

[Need help?]

The telegram does not tell Francis much about who will be at the railway station, only that she should be there at a certain time. In the words "Sent with my love", Victor also does not tell Frances that he loves her in a fiancé type of way. It's rather a brotherly sort of ending to the telegram.

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Why did Victor send that telegram to Frances? (6)

[Need help?]

Victor has realised that Frances does not love him but that she and Walter love each other. One could argue therefore that he is setting the two of them up to meet at Grahamstown — a sort of "end-of-the-novel heroism". There is, however, another interpretation. Victor has known for months now that Frances does not really love him. Her pawning of her engagement ring told him that loudly and clearly. The marriage will therefore be a farce, something each is doing purely out of a sense of duty. Victor therefore decides to set the two of them up for a meeting, and thereby gallantly rid himself of something that he no longer desires. It is also clear that Victor has been pursuing Warburton's daughter in Johannesburg. Victor is an empire builder. It would therefore be far more beneficial to him to marry the Warburton woman than marry a naive mission girl who doesn't love him and will probably only offer him a sham marriage. His setting Frances free to marry Walter is therefore not gentlemanly at all, but Victor's further attempt at empire building in a way that everyone around will applaud. It is indeed another show of Victor's selfish ambition!

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Frances takes Victor's telegram and places it in the musical box.

• Why does she feel that it belongs there? (5)

[Need help?]

The musical box reminded Frances of the time when Victor had mocked Reverend Brompton and Walter had scolded him for doing so. Her brother, Crispin — now dead — had painstakingly repaired the machine before sending it on to the deranged Brompton. The musical box therefore had special memories for Frances and it came to represent the place where she put all those things which meant anything to her. In a sense, this present telegram from Victor probably reminds her of the old Victor, her big-brother figure before sex and marriage had intervened. It therefore possibly also deserved to be put in this special place.

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Explain the significance of the clothes that Frances decides to wear that day. (3)

[Need help?]

The clothes that Frances chooses are those which she had worn often at St Matthias where she had been comfortable and happy. She has clearly made a decision to end her engagement with Victor and return to the mission station. She therefore avoids the stylish clothing she has been forced to wear in Grahamstown as Victor's fiancé in favour of her comfortable clothing of happier times. This is really a revolutionary moment in Frances's existence where she decides to take her life into her own hands and no longer follow the orders of other people whose conventions she can no longer accept.

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Frances refuses the offer of the trap, and also rejects Aunt Alice's desire to accompany her to the railway station.

• Why does she do this? (6)



• What change does this indicate in Frances's character? (4)

[Need help?]

Frances has decided to end her engagement with Victor. She therefore wants to be alone and not in her aunt's company. She also wishes to walk to the station alone so as to steel herself for this action and rehearse what she needs to say. She is acutely aware that the presence of Aunt Alice would destroy her intention because Victor's aunt would obviously side with her nephew in shouting Frances down. This is really a revolutionary moment in Frances's existence where she decides to take her life into her own hands and no longer follow the orders of other people whose conventions she can no longer accept.

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What happens when Frances reaches the station? (6)

[Need help?]

Frances waits for the train to arrive, expecting to meet Victor but after all the passengers have disembarked, there is no sign of him. She is about to leave when she notices the familiar figure of Walter. Both are taken by surprise at seeing each other. Frances asks Walter to take her home to Mbokhotwe with him (i.e. to marry her). They embrace and kiss, signifying their realised love for each other.

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There is a difference in the mood of Frances and Aunt Alice.

• What, do you think, accounts for this difference? (4)

[Need help?]

Aunt Alice is still optimistic that Frances and Victor will marry. Frances, on the other hand, has reached the decision that this is not so, that she must end her engagement because it is clearly a farce that has been organised to fulfill other people's ambitions and conventions. She has at last come to the realisation that she does not love Victor and has no right to marry him, whereas Aunt Alice has no perception of this.

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