Comfort in Sorrow
- Margaret walks quickly to the Higgins' house. She visits Bessy's body, which is still laid out on the couch. At the center of the room, Nicholas Higgins stands in shock at his daughter's death. Bessy has been sick for so long that he's convinced himself that she'd never die.
- When he finally realizes what's happened, he curses and stomps around and cries. Finally, he makes to leave. His daughter Mary begs him not to go out and get drunk. But it seems like this is exactly what he wants to do.
- Margaret forces him to come look at Bessy's body. While they stand over it, Margaret tells Higgins that Bessy's last request to Mary was for her father not to drink. Higgins isn't swayed by this, though. He seems dead set on drinking.
- Finally, Margaret asks Higgins to come to her house with her and speak to her father. Higgins is reluctant at first, but he eventually agrees.
- Before leaving, Higgins bends down and kisses Bessy one last time.
- When they get to the Hale house, Margaret runs ahead to tell her father about what's up. He's caught off-guard by the sudden need to talk sense into a drunken man in the middle of the day. But he eventually agrees.
- While Mr. Hale speaks with Higgins, Margaret visits her mother and promises her that she mailed the letter to Frederick the day before. She and Dixon both promise Mrs. Hale that she'll see her son again before she dies.
- When she returns to the other room, Margaret is happy to find her father in deep conversation with Higgins. Higgins insists to Mr. Hale that he can't bring himself to believe in anything he can't see with his own two eyes. This goes for the idea of God especially. He has a tough time believing that God exists when a girl like Bessy can live such a terrible life from start to finish.
- Finally, Higgins gets around to the fact that the workers' strike is over because the riot at Thornton's has turned everyone's opinions against the workers.
- While this is going on, Mr. Hale offers to read from a book about how workers' wages should always be determined by the free market and the laws of supply and demand. Higgins says he's more or less heard this argument before and doesn't buy into it. For him, employers have a moral obligation to their workers.
- Higgins then goes on about how the whole strike has been ruined because of Boucher's hasty actions. Margaret asked him why he let Boucher into the union in the first place if he's always been such a wild card. Higgins replies that he took pity on Boucher.
- Margaret then criticizes the union for the harsh way it treats all non-union workers. Higgins argues that this is necessary in order to preserve good wages for everybody.
- Higgins gets up to leave, but in order to keep him from drinking, Margaret invites him to stay and pray for a while with her and her dad. Higgins is again reluctant, but he eventually gives in.