The Shakespeare Stealer

Widge and the stranger arrive at their destination, “a substantial house surrounded by a high hedge” (25). The stranger passes off his horse to a stable boy named Adam, then he enters the kitchen where he requests food from Libby, the girl working there. Libby shows Widge to his room in the garret. Instead of staying awake to eat or wash, he immediately blows out the candle lighting the room and falls into a deep sleep.

When Widge awakes, he hurriedly eats and dresses, surprised by the lateness of the morning. Emerging from his room, he encounters Libby, the servant girl he met the night before. She offers to wash his clothes then tells him that “the master said to bring you to him as soon as you were up” (28). Widge thinks that his master is the gruff stranger who purchased him from Dr. Bright. However, upon entering his master’s study, he is met by a “mild-looking man with a well-trimmed beard and a balding head of hair of an odd, reddish hue” (29). The chapter ends with the man, Simon Bass, introducing himself and telling Widge that he is his new master.