North and South, Part III

We enter the final part of Elizabeth Gaskell's famous novel at the moment Margaret is coming to terms not only with the loss of her mother, but also with the feeling that Mr Thornton will think of her as a liar. It is as if Elizabeth Gaskell, under the guise of a sense of honour and truth and a cool admiration for the Milton mill owner, allows the first rays of love to shine through – but only the author and the perceptive reader know of them; Margaret herself is not yet aware. John Thornton, on the other hand, persuades his mother to seek Margaret out – after all, she promised the dying Mrs Hale that she would assist her in moments when the girl might falter. He still returns to the moment he saw her at the station with a strange young man. He knows Margaret lied to him, but he feels it was not for base motives. However, Mrs Thornton's firm but somewhat haughty principles recoil from Margaret's pride like a stone thrown against a rock. Mr Bell, Margaret's godfather, her father's Oxford friend and Thornton's landlord, enters the scene. The kind old tutor immediately wins the girl's heart. Moreover, he notices that the tension between Margaret Hale and John Thornton is far from stemming solely from their different views on the organisation of society. He confides his suspicion to Mr Hale, but he just shakes his head in disbelief. This is also one of the last things this unfortunate widower and former pastor manages to do in his life, as he dies soon after in Mr Bell's Oxford college, where he had come to visit him. Margaret is completely paralysed by grief and gratefully accepts asylum in her aunt's London house, where she spent her childhood – Mrs Shaw and her daughter Edith and family are returning from Corfu. An idle life, enlivened only by a brief visit to Helstone, which rather embitters than soothes Margaret, is unfortunately not very satisfying for her. Thoughts of Mr Thornton and of those who have left her still trouble her heart. Mr Bell – this gentleman is not fated to see the end of the novel either – makes her a rich heiress, but Margaret feels only gratitude, not happiness. Far away, in the industrial North, John Thornton is fighting a losing battle to save his mill. His late-night conversation with his mother is one of the most powerful moments in the entire book and seems to steer the remaining text towards a rushed, passionate denouement. Will the humbled mill owner be able to stand tall again? Will the lawyer Henry Lennox, who was once rejected in sunny Helstone long ago, be successful the second time around? And from whom will Margaret finally accept the most beautiful engagement gift – the dried roses that bloomed right there? Translated from the English original North and South (for the very first time into Czech) by Jana Srbová.