North and South

Dr. Donaldson attends to Maria but is told not to discuss the diagnosis with Margaret. When Margaret demands he tell her, he says there is no cure, but they can hopefully manage her suffering. Margaret is devastated but goes in to see her mother. She resolves not to tell her father the news. The doctor thinks Margaret is a remarkably strong and brave young woman: “That girl’s game to the back-bone” (173). Maria laments she will never see Helstone again while Dixon speaks of her great love and loyalty to her mistress. Dixon came to love Maria the first time she met her as a child. In her delirium, Maria cries out for Frederick. Dixon and Margaret put Maria to bed. Dixon is proud of Margaret’s strength and credits it to her Beresford blood (from Maria’s side of the family).

Margaret takes a walk to lighten her spirits and pays a visit to Bessy. There, Higgins says he is worried about the strike. Bessy says it is the third strike she has seen and will be her last. Margaret has never seen a strike and wonders about the aim of the strikers. She explains farmers in the south would not strike because no one would have food if they did not plant and harvest the crops.