North and South: Chapter 27 Summary & Analysis

After Thornton returns from his countryside foray, his mind is clearer, and he immerses himself once again in the day’s business. However, he has to constantly fight to keep his mind from drifting back to Margaret. In the street he bumps into and chats with Dr. Donaldson, who informs him that Mrs. Hale doesn’t have many weeks to live. Thornton is shaken, and, though he has “no general benevolence,—no universal philanthropy,” he goes directly to Milton’s fruit-shop and buys a basket of the freshest fruits he can find. He insists on delivering the basket himself, though he draws attention as he passes through “the busiest part of the town for feminine shopping.”

Thornton warmly presents the fruit basket to a delighted Mrs. Hale, but quickly leaves without acknowledging Margaret. As the Hales sample the fruit and praise Thornton’s kindness, Mr. Hale remembers the currant bushes in the old Helstone garden. On top of the events of the past two days, this casual memory breaks Margaret’s composure, and she retreats to her room to sob.

Later, Dixon comes in and tells Margaret that Mary Higgins has come with the news that Bessy died that morning. Mary wants Margaret to come to the Higgins’s to see Bessy’s body laid out (“a notion, these common folks [have], of its being a respect to the departed,” says Dixon). Though she shrinks at first from the idea, Margaret agrees to go.