Looking South
- Margaret and Mr. Hale pay another visit to the Boucher house to help Mrs. Boucher in any way they can. But all Mrs. Boucher can do is throw down blame upon anything that could have contributed to Boucher's death. She especially blames the union and Mr. Thornton, whose mill Boucher attacked.
- Margaret finds that she can't get through to Mrs. Boucher at all. Afterward, she tells her father that she blames city living for the way that people in Milton can't seem to deal with anything. All of their nerves are frayed from all the hustle and bustle.
- Once again, Margaret's thoughts turn to how ashamed she'll be if she ever has to face John Thornton again.
- There's a knock at the door, and Margaret is afraid that it's Thornton. It's actually Higgins, though, and he comes marching right into the house. He says that he feels like it's his duty to help support Boucher's family in addition to his own. He says he plans on moving south to see if he can find work in a town where he doesn't have a reputation as a labor agitator. Margaret advises against it, saying that he's not young enough to handle the strain of the labor he'd have to do down there.
- After some back and forth about whether Higgins should go, Margaret asks him if he has gone to Mr. Thornton's factory looking for work. Higgins assures her that he indeed has, and that one of Thornton's servants told him to get lost. Margaret insists that he might get a different answer if he speaks to Thornton directly, though.
- Finally, Higgins agrees to go find Thornton and speak to him personally.
- After Higgins is gone, Mr. Hale says that it finally seems as though Margaret is doing Mr. Thornton justice by assuming he can be kind. Thinking about this, Margaret realizes that she does think Mr. Thornton is a good man. It might have something to do with him letting her off the hook about lying to the police.