Love Conquers Pride and Circumstance — North and South

The final chapter. Lennox arrives at the appointed time; Thornton is also there. Lennox does not stay. He tells Edith, with quiet finality, that Margaret will not have him and he will not ask again, and he leaves. Thornton and Margaret are left with business papers and the back drawing-room to themselves. Margaret comes in looking white and anxious, apologising for Lennox's absence and trying to conduct the conversation on a legal and financial footing. Thornton does not allow it to remain there. He speaks her name once, twice, a third time, each time quieter and more urgent. She hides her face in her hands. He kneels beside her. He whispers his warning: if she does not speak, he will claim her in some strange presumptuous way, which is both a threat and an invitation. She turns toward him and lays her face against his shoulder. He clasps her close. They are both silent. Then she murmurs that she is not good enough. He tells her not to mock his own feeling of unworthiness. He shows her the dried Helstone roses he has carried in his pocket-book, the ones he gathered on the visit he made when he had no hope at all, only the need to see where she came from. She takes them. He asks for something in return. The novel ends with them laughing together about how to tell their mothers: her aunt will say 'that man'; his mother will say 'that woman.' The End.