a child of the Sphinx

“A child of the Sphinx” is Monica Knollys’s description of Silas Ruthyn, conveying the mystery that surrounds him even to those who know him. The phrase gives a name to Maud Ruthyn’s long-standing uncertainty: her knowledge of her uncle has been restricted, and neither family explanations nor the portrait she has studied has made him intelligible.

The phrase and its speaker

Monica uses the expression while explaining that she had no prior prejudice or settled theory about Silas. She says she never knew what to think of him and could not understand him, likening him to a figure whose nature remains an enigma. The phrase is not an accusation based on a particular act in this exchange; it describes the difficulty of forming a coherent judgment about him.

Maud’s inherited uncertainty

Maud recognizes the same obscurity from her own experience. She says she had always felt that Silas was difficult to understand, but attributes her impression to being left to speculate. Her father, Austin Ruthyn, disliked questions about his brother and, Maud believes, instructed the servants to remain silent. In the absence of firsthand conversation or open family discussion, Maud tried to glean conjectures from Silas’s portrait and from whatever information she could find.

Secrecy and the limits of knowledge

The description gains force from the contrast between Monica’s independent bewilderment and Maud’s enforced lack of information. Monica cannot understand Silas despite having no prejudice; Maud has been denied the ordinary means of understanding him. Their exchange presents his mystery not as a single concealed fact but as a gap sustained by silence, speculation, and incomplete testimony. Maud adds that a note imposes an injunction resembling her father’s earlier silence, leaving its meaning unclear as well.