Chapters 40-45 Summary

In chapter forty, Mr. Huntingdon sees what his wife is writing and takes away her diary, reading all about her plans to run away. Mr. Huntingdon takes away the money she has saved and all her jewels, allowing her only a few pieces of silver from that point on so that she cannot take his son and run away. In chapter forty-one, Mr. Huntingdon once again makes his yearly pilgrimage to London. Helen uses this time to teach her son to dislike alcoholic beverages by putting a tartar-emetic in them to make him sick whenever he drinks them. During this same spring, Frederick, Helen's brother, comes to visit. Helen tells him of her situation and asks if it would be possible for her to stay in their abandoned childhood home, Wildfell Hall, for a time until she can make the money she needs to go...