Victorians! discussion

Please discuss Volume II, chapters XI "Union Not Always Strength" through XVII "Alone! Alone!" here.

What a sad section, revealing the difficulties of the working class in a small town. And all the confusion between Margaret and Thornton. I started to get this feeling that she would lode her father, yet it still came as a shock.

For the French section in Vol II, Ch XVI, my husband provided me with the following translation:

'I do not wish my heart to take up again in this way: dying of shame, blind, haughty, a disloyal traitor to thou, O God, and suchlike things, but I would wish for discipline [correction] by seeing/the sight of [your] mercy. Well now, my poor heart, here we [again] fall into the pit, which we had resolved to escape from. Ah! let us take note, and leave that for ever, pleading for the mercy of God, and hope in that mercy that we will strive to henceforth be firm, and put ourselves on the path of humility. Courage, for today let us be on guard, God will help us.'

It's from St. Francis de Sales's Guide to the Rosary.

Another death! I feel like I'm watching one of those movies where the protagonist's situation keeps getting worse and worse and I think "Surely it can't get any worse; this is the lowest of the low; and they need to leave enough time in the movie for the situation to turn around and come out with a happy ending" ... and then it gets worse.