At Limmeridge, Walter falls in love with the beautiful Laura Fairlie and discovers that the woman in white must have been Anne Catherick, daughter of a family servant, who looks very much like Laura (really being her half-sister). Laura's father, on his deathbed, had requested that Laura marry Sir Percival Glyde, and Laura complies. Walter leaves for several months. During this period the evil Sir Percival and his accomplice, the equally evil Count Fosco, try to persuade Laura to sign over her inheritance to them. She refuses.