Growing Closer Despite Obstacles — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

For four months neither Gilbert nor Mrs Graham enters the other's house, yet outdoor meetings on the moor and at church keep drawing them together. Gilbert admits he contrives encounters because he likes her talk and Arthur's company; Sancho wins the boy first, then gradual trust wins the mother, who still trudges beside any ride to watch what Gilbert teaches. On a February walk she drops her usual edge and discusses books and neighborhood narrowness with an eloquence that makes Eliza Millward feel frivolous when Gilbert returns home. In March he finds her sketching winter trees while Arthur dam-builds in the brook; she lets Gilbert give the child a rare ride on the farm mare, then grows impatient when he keeps the boy too long. Walking her toward Wildfell Hall he asks whether the place feels desolate; she confesses winter evenings alone there fill her with dread she knows is weak, yet she is grateful for the asylum. At the gate she stops him from coming farther. Homeward Gilbert meets Mr Lawrence, spars about changed opinions of Mrs Graham, bluntly asks whether Lawrence loves her, and hears only amused denial plus a warning to leave Eliza alone. Tea at Linden-Car turns comic as Rose lists how the household spoils Gilbert, and Mrs Markham predicts marriage will cure his romantic notions about duty. Gilbert ends amused but more clearly caught between Eliza's easy charm and Helen's guarded mind.