'Innocence, once lost, is lost forever.”
A wistful remembrance from a much older Kipps who takes the time to interrupt the flow of the narrator with an observation that expands upon the changes that have been made to his character since the events in the novel he is narrating took place.
“He had always blamed himself, at least in part, for what had happened to me…”
The last few words of this quote provide an ominous sense of foreshadowing that tells the reader they should be prepared to find exactly what happened to the narrator to cause another person to take the blame.
"Such things one must face."
Another bit of foreshadowing as Kipps reveals that he is intensely aware of the power of courage. The reader learns from this quote that courage is going to be required and there is within this admission more than a little sinister expectation of exactly what will be faced that requires such courage.
“A tall, gaunt house of gray stone with a slate roof…”
Personification. The house itself here becomes invested with a foreboding and gloomy countenance equitable to the titular woman in black, thus enhancing the concept of the story as one about a ghost haunting.
“And then, quite suddenly, I saw her.”
The “her” is obvious. The understatement is an excellent example of the subtlety of the utilization of horror motifs and conventions in the narrative.
“This time, there was no merciful loss of consciousness, I was forced to live through it all, every minute and then every day thereafter for ten long months…”
The horror. The horror. The horror that the Woman in Black has lived with all her life is one that is eternal. Here the narrator suggests that horror is an infinite experience for everyone. No matter their part in the horror or the intensity of the horror. It never ends. It is inexorably infinite.
