Ne'er to be Found Again
- We look in on one of Mrs. Shaw's dinner parties, where Captain Lennox and his brother Henry are basically holding court. Margaret can't help but feel though that these parties are superficial. When people talk about art, for example, they only focus on things like prettiness or ugliness, not the deeper substance of the paintings.
- Sensing that Margaret isn't pleased, Henry Lennox tries to strike up conversation with her by asking for her true opinions of things. All Margaret can think of is whether Mr. Bell has delivered the truth of her train station trip to Mr. Thornton.
- Sensing what's on her mind, Henry Lennox says that Mr. Bell seems somewhat ill from his letters these days. This info worries Margaret, whose loved ones don't have a great track record with illness.
- Henry is worried about Margaret going to Spain, because he thinks she'll meet someone there and get married. Margaret responds by saying she'll never ever get married, which of course bums Henry out.
- Mr. Bell is supposed to show up in London, but he doesn't come. Something seems wrong. And of course, Margaret soon gets word that Mr. Bell has had a stroke and probably won't survive another night.
- Margaret immediately packs her bags for Oxford, hoping to see Mr. Bell before he passes away. She gets caught up with her cousin Edith though and misses her train. She eventually gets a later train, but when she arrives in Oxford, she hears that Mr. Bell is already a goner. Tack one more onto the total death count in this book.
- At this point, Margaret realizes she has bigger things to worry about than whether Mr. Bell ever told Mr. Thornton the truth about her. She even feels selfish for worrying so much about this only a few days earlier.