Grace then describes the inquest and how she had to wait in the Toronto jail for months until the trial date. She was given a lawyer, Mr. MacKenzie. He instructed her to tell her story, not in fragments as she remembered it but as a coherent whole that others could understand and thus might be believed.

While waiting in jail, she thought of Mary Whitney, and it was at this time that Grace first started dreaming of the red peonies growing in the gravel path. Grace recalls that the last time she saw him, Dr. Jordan asked her about Susanna Moodie and her claim that Grace had seen the eyes of Nancy following her around. Grace clarified that she didn’t say “eyes” but “peonies.”

Grace then describes the trial and Jamie Walsh’s testimony, in which he pointed out that Grace was wearing Nancy’s clothes. Outcries in the courtroom convinced her of her doom, and the judge sentenced both her and McDermott to death.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jordan takes the train to Toronto to meet with Mr. MacKenzie. On the journey, he thinks about how Grace must be concealing something from him, and he concludes that “her strongest prison is of her own construction.” In other words, she has built bars to conceal her truth, even from herself.

Dr. Jordan also thinks about how much he hates women’s expressions of gratitude and how these expressions must conceal the real truth of their contempt for him. He feels in over his head with Mrs. Humphrey, who claimed to have been sleepwalking on the night when they first had sex. Dr. Jordan didn’t believe her story, but he nonetheless went on to have sex with her every night since. Dr. Jordan contrasts Mrs. Humphrey with a whore. Whereas a whore must feign desire regardless of her feelings, Mrs. Humphrey feigns a lack of desire, implying an aversion to sex that he must overcome. Dr. Jordan recognizes that he gives the same performance of aversion, and he wonders how far he will go in his relationship with Mrs. Humphrey.

The train arrives in Toronto, and though the city is clean and lively, he thinks how much he would prefer to be in London or Paris.

Previous page Part XI page 1 Next page Part XI page 3

Popular pages: Alias Grace

Take a Study Break