Arabella March

Lady Arabella March is the Mistress of a mortgaged Diana’s Grove. Her father is Lord Lieutenant of the County and owner of the estate. Her previous husband committed suicide. She is described as a “cold-blooded” character. Her intention to get Diana’s Grove out of debt was to pressure Edgar Caswall to marry her, so that she may become “chatelaine of Castra Regis”. She is conveyed as having the ability to “use her arts and her experience” to make a man commit himself (1911, Chapter 15).

Diana’s Grove
Arabella mentioned that Diana’s Grove had certain “views in the twilight which are, they say, unique”. She also pointed out about the Grove, that “if you are a student of natural history—specially of an earlier kind, when the world was younger—you shall not have your labour of discovery in vain.” (Chapter 4). It is believed that Diana’s Grove has druidical origins (Chapter 3).

Appearance
Arabella’s noteable aspects is her white dress, and sinuous figure. She is tall and exceedingly thin. Her naturally piercing eyes took a vivid green, suggested by her green spectacles. “Coiled round her white throat” was a large necklace of emeralds, whose profusion of colour quite outshone the green of her spectacles—even when the sun shone on them. “Her voice was very peculiar, very low and sweet, and so soft that the dominant note was of ” (a hissing sound). “Her hands, too, were peculiar—long, flexible, white, with a strange movement as of waving gently to and fro.” Her manner, overall, is abnormally cold and distant (Chapter 4).

Snake-woman
“Lady Arabella looked like a soulless, pitiless being, not human unless it revived old legends of transformed human beings who had lost their humanity in some transformation or in the sweep of natural savagery.” (1911, Chapter 11, The First Encounter)


 * Upon Adam Salton’s first encounter with Arabella March, they were near the Mound at Stone where black snakes emerged. In a moment, Arabella had been among the snakes when Adam called out to warn her. But there seemed to be no need of warning. The snakes had turned and were wriggling back to their mound just as quickly as they had appeared. Adam laughed to himself behind his teeth as he whispered, “No need to fear there. They seem much more afraid of her than she of them.” (Chapter 4).


 * It’s pointed out that on the following day, Lady Arabella was dressed as Adam had seen her last (1911, Chapter 5, Home-Coming).


 * At the well-hole, “the passage of the Worm”, Adam was amazed to see “how thoroughly Lady Arabella seemed to enjoy the sounding of the well-hole, despite the sickening stench exhaled by the fissure. Sometimes he would have to go out into the outer air to get free from it for a little while. It really was not merely an evil smell; it rather seemed to partake of some of the qualities of some noxious chemical waste. But she seemed never to tire in the work, but went on as though unconscious that anything disagreeable at all existed.” (1911, Chapter 34, Apprehension)
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Film adaption
Lady Sylvia Marsh is essentially a reincarnation of Arabella in The Lair of the White Worm (1988) film adaption, for a present-day audience.