The Argosy, Vol. VI

This is Chapter XXI of Anne Hereford by the author of East Lynne, serialized in The Argosy, October 1, 1868. The melodramatic chapter centers on revelations and romantic tension. After Mr. Chandos physically intervenes when Mr. Edwin Barley encounters the protagonist Anne, Barley claims her as his niece and threatens future legal action. Later, Chandos confesses his love to Anne despite insisting he cannot marry, citing dark unspecified clouds hanging over his family estate that would make marriage dishonorable. Anne reveals her parentage: she is the daughter of Colonel Hereford and Miss Carew of Keppe-Carew, making her a woman of respectable family but working as a governess. She further discloses that she witnessed the shooting death of Philip King at Edwin Barley's property years earlier—a killing allegedly committed by someone whose name Mrs. Hemson (another relation) forbade her to repeat, though Chandos names George Heneage.