The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins is Victorian melodrama pure and simple.  We have a man harboring a secret, poison, deformity, insanity, a murder trial, a faithful family retainer, a near-fatal illness, and the list just goes on and on. Valeria marries Eustace against the wishes of both their families.  On their honeymoon, she discovers he is harboring a dark secret.  Eustace leaves because he can’t face her knowing the truth which is that he had been married before and his wife died of poison.  Eustace was tried for her murder and a verdict of Not Proven was brought in.  This meant there was not enough evidence to…