Chapter 25 Summary

Ellen Ash's journal entry of November 25th, 1889 comprises the first part of Chapter 25. Ellen writes that she is sitting at Ash's desk at 2:00am. She cannot sleep. He is dead. She feels better sitting among his things, because his possessions seem to carry a bit of the man she loved. Randolph instructed her to burn some personal items, because he did not want them to be picked over by contemporary biographers. She is burning some things, but there are items she cannot burn, because they do not belong to her.

There is a brief excerpt from one of Cropper's books that fills in the details of the funeral, and then the next scene in the chapter takes place on November 27th, 1889. It is the night before Ash's funeral, and Ellen looks through Randolph's things and finds an airtight specimen box. She has a...