The Weight of Proposals and Family Duty — North and South

Margaret remains shaken by John Thornton's proposal, comparing it with Henry Lennox's embarrassed offer from Helstone days. Lennox seemed to slip into love and regret it; Thornton arrived through open opposition, declaring passion she cannot dismiss as pity after she shielded him from the mob. She opens the window, then decides to visit Bessy Higgins rather than sit alone with his voice still in the room. Margaret struggles to process Thornton's passionate proposal, feeling both repelled and strangely fascinated by his declaration of enduring love. She seeks refuge with dying Bessy Higgins, who reveals the devastating aftermath of the mill riot.

At Higgins's cottage Bessy lies exhausted, asking Margaret to read comforting scripture, then breaking off to describe the riot's aftermath. Nicholas, a strike committee-man, is crushed because Boucher broke union orders against violence, ruining the moral case they built for public sympathy. Bessy says Nicholas nearly handed Boucher to the police, then Boucher struck him and fled. Margaret denies that Boucher threw the stone at the mill, reddening when Bessy realizes she was there. Bessy's father Nicholas is heartbroken that fellow striker Boucher violated their peaceful principles by throwing the stone, undermining everything the union worked for.

Margaret returns to find Mrs. Hale revived on Dr. Donaldson's water-bed, nostalgic for Oxenham and her son Frederick, the charming boy everyone loved. Grief over Frederick's exile opens into a crisis: Mrs. Hale begs to see him before she dies, charging Margaret on pain of eternal comfort to send for him at once. Margaret writes by the post despite Mr. Hale being out. The revelation that Boucher struck Nicholas in a rage shows how desperation can destroy even the strongest friendships. Meanwhile, Margaret returns home to find her mother in crisis, desperately begging to see her exiled son Frederick before she dies.

Mr. Hale warns that the Navy never forgives mutiny and hunts deserters for years, yet says Margaret did right because her mother may not recover without Frederick. Margaret walks home afraid she has invited her brother into a trap. Thornton's love, Bessy's decline, and Frederick's danger now pull her in three directions at once. Despite knowing the mortal danger, Frederick faces execution if caught after his naval mutiny years ago, Margaret writes to summon him home. Her father explains that the Navy never forgives mutiny, hunting deserters relentlessly across years and oceans.