'How shall I tell Aunt Shaw' she whispered, after some time of delicious silence.
'Let me speak to her.'
'Oh, no! I owe to her,—but what will she say?'
'I can guess. Her first exclamation will be, "That man!"'
'Hush!' said Margaret, 'or I shall try and show you your mother's indignant tones as she says, "That woman!"' (2.27.45-49)
The ending of this book gives us a rare show of humor from Margaret and Thornton, whose lives have been fairly miserable for most of this book. By the end though, they've decided that they'd like to marry one another, and now their talk turns to an awkward subject—the fact that their in-laws can't stand them.
Margaret's Aunt Shaw will be repulsed at the idea of Margaret marrying a manufacturer from the north, while Thornton's mother will blow a gasket when she hears her son is engaged to a snobby flake from the south. Oh well, though. Margaret and Thornton have been through much worse than in-law angst.