“Dolly was beautiful, and the Lestranges had always been beautiful, and it was right she should go forth and be a credit to the old house, and I was ugly, and the Lestranges had never been ugly, and it was meet that I keep in the obscurity, for which I alone was calculated”
Dolly LeStrange’s beauty is established by the narrator Nell right away. This is immediately followed by a comparison to her own physical appearance, and this dichotomy is a theme followed through the entire novel. Dolly is described in a way that validates her place in the sun. She is worth the mansion, the social standing, while Nell, who sees herself as unworthy, sets herself up as the sister who will have a tragic life in the dark.
“Since then, I have been sorry for my sin; at least I have tried to be”
When Nell is on her death bed, ill with consumption, she has turned to God. Between the confrontation with her sister and this scene, two years have gone by. Dick has passed away in India, and Dolly is happily living the life she had always envisioned for herself. Nell is now deeply religious, but here, she reveals she may not have truly changed her heart. She is bedridden with a sickness long believed to be caused by a broken heart, which further implies her sudden piousness may not be as virtuous as she may want it to be.
“He crammed me to his desolate heart, and we kissed each other wildly, vehemently: none came between us then.”
Dick does not reach out to Nell, after he receives a letter asking him to cut off all contact. Believing it to be Nell, he complies with her wishes, but it was in fact Dolly who had forged her sister’s signature. This eventually leads to Nell marrying Sir Hugh. When Nell learns of Dolly’s deceit, she has a wild encounter with Dick, despite having been married for awhile. This time, she knows that no one, at least for that moment, would come between them.
“I believe you would sell your soul for gold,”
Nell, who has found out about Dolly’s hand in her unhappiness, confronts her. She finally expresses her disdain for her materialistic disposition and lack of empathy. She then threaten to expose her sister, who is now engaged to a wealthy aristocrat, therefore endangering her future happiness, just as she had destroyed hers.
“I certainly would,” answered my sister sedately; “one’s soul does not do one much good that I could ever find out; if I could have my body left me, my nice, pretty, pleasant body, with plenty of money to keep it well fed and well dressed, I’d give my soul its congé with the greatest sang froid imaginable.”
When she is confronted by her younger sister, Dolly not merely feels no remorse for doing so. She shows, perhaps for the first time, an ounce of humanity, as she reveals that she may have been heart broken herself, therefore choosing to live a life of comfort. This may be the reason Nell decides not to expose her sister, knowing it would not change what had happened to her.
