Madame de la Rougierre’s arrival at Knowl makes Maud Ruthyn’s moonlit terror suddenly domestic: the strange woman outside the window is introduced as the new governess her father has hired for her. The episode establishes Madame as both an unsettling physical presence and an immediate threat to Maud’s sense of safety, before their first formal acquaintance has even begun.

The Moonlit Appearance

Before Maud learns who the woman is, she sees a tall figure in grey standing on the grass, almost white in the moonlight and bowing with extravagant formality. The stranger’s large, hollow features and unpleasant smile are unfamiliar. When she sees that Maud is watching, she begins to gobble and cackle shrilly and gesture with her long arms and hands; Maud cannot make out what she is saying through the window.

As the woman approaches the window, Maud rings the bell frantically and flees the room, afraid she may break in. She meets Branston, the butler, in the lobby. The arrival is thus first experienced not as an introduction but as a possible intrusion: the window separates Maud from the figure, while her fear drives her from the room.

The Governess Identified

Branston reports that the visitor says she is the governess. The announcement leaves Maud asking which governess he means; her father does not explain immediately. He enters as usual, pats her gently on the head, and walks silently up and down the room. Only after nearly an hour does he tell her, briefly, that Madame de la Rougierre has arrived to serve as her governess, describing her as highly recommended and perfectly qualified.

The contrast between her father’s composed assurance and Maud’s reaction is sharp. Her heart sinks, and she says she already dislikes, distrusts, and fears the woman. Madame’s appointment is presented as an ordinary household arrangement by Maud’s father, but for Maud it confirms the identity of the uncanny stranger and gives her apprehension a continuing personal focus.

First Acquaintance and Lasting Effect

The following morning, Maud sees Madame in daylight. She is tall and masculine, wearing purple silk and a lace cap, with thick black hair against bleached, sallow skin, hollow jaws, and fine, grim wrinkles around her brows and eyelids. Madame smiles and nods, then studies Maud in silence with a steady, cunning eye and stern smile. Her formal question asks Maud’s name; Maud answers that it is Maud.

The daylight encounter does not undo the impression of the night before. Maud recalls the large-featured, smirking figure saluting her in the moonlight as an image that retains an unusually strong and unpleasant hold on her nerves. The episode’s decisive consequence is therefore psychological as well as practical: Madame has entered Knowl as a governess, but she is already lodged in Maud’s imagination as a source of danger.