Sunday Morning
- As much as she'd love to have Dinah stay, Lisbeth is getting over her sickness. So she tries a different tactic. When the two of them are alone, Lisbeth starts talking about her sons. Take that Adam: "He'd be a fine husband for anybody, be they who they will" (51.4). Cough cough (Dinah!) cough cough…
- But Dinah escapes this conversation, and leaves the house on good terms, leaving Lisbeth alone with Seth. But Lisbeth won't let the whole marriage topic go. She's convinced that Adam and Dinah are meant for each other, but Seth thinks otherwise: "He feels very grateful and affectionate toward Dinah, but he's no thoughts towards her that 'ud incline him to make her his wife" (51.15).
- Lisbeth's answer: Pssh! She's been reading the signs for quite some time, and Seth "know'st nought about it" (51.20). But no matter who's right, Adam isn't in much of a mood to talk about Dinah. He's "always at home, doing nothing but reading" (51.25). Lost in his head, it seems.
- One Sunday, Adam is reading his "large pictured Bible" (51.26).
- Lisbeth can't read a word, but she does notice that one of the illustrations looks just like Dinah. This gives Lisbeth an opening. She gives Adam an early-19th-century version of "Why don't you ask that pretty girl out?" And Adam gives her a 19th-century version of "Because she doesn't like me, mom, stop bothering me."
- But just try to make Lisbeth back down! She insists that Dinah is just right for marrying Adam, Methodism or no Methodism. Besides, who'll take care of Adam when Lisbeth is gone? So there it is, the marriage issue is out in the open. Adam needs some air. He heads out into the "autumnal Sunday sunshine" (51.57).
- Now Adam has a whole new set of problems to wrestle with. What if Dinah just keeps on rejecting him (and, by proxy, the whole Bede family)? What will Seth think? Eliot decides to kill the drama on this last one, because here comes Seth himself, walking back from one of those Methodist meetings of his.
- Adam tries talk around the issues, asking Seth if Dinah "might ever get fond enough of anybody else to be willing to marry 'em" (51.69). But Seth hacks through all this fancy-talk. He's fine with having Dinah for a sister-in-law. He'd even feel joy.
- Adam then asks about Dinah's whereabouts (the Hall Farm, saying her goodbyes) and sets off to press his case. And Seth goes his own way, happy to know that he now holds the world record for "Most Friend-Zoned Character in a Victorian Novel."