The French Lieutenant’s Woman: Chapter 52 Summary & Analysis

Aunt Tranter comes home to disaster. Mary greets her with distress, and Aunt Tranter runs upstairs, where she finds Dr. Grogan. He tells her what has happened. She can’t believe Charles would do such a thing. Ernestina refuses to say what he told her. Aunt Tranter begins to cry, and Dr. Grogan comforts her. Aunt Tranter thinks she’ll be blamed, but Dr. Grogan says he’ll telegraph Ernestina’s mother. He tells her to keep watch over Ernestina, but let her do as she likes. Aunt Tranter can’t imagine she’ll ever recover, but Grogan assures her she will. Aunt Tranter guesses there’s another woman involved. Dr. Grogan neither confirms nor denies this. Aunt Tranter wants to go talk to Charles, but Grogan promises to rake him over the coals for her.

When Grogan leaves, Mrs. Tranter goes up to Ernestina’s room, where Mary is sitting with her. Ernestina is asleep, looking very peaceful. Mrs. Tranter notices that Mary looks miserable, and she beckons her outside and asks what happened. Mary says that Ernestina fainted when Charles was there and when she came to she wouldn’t speak. When Mary got her up to her room she became hysterical until Grogan calmed her down. She only spoke to ask where Charles was. Mrs. Tranter hugs Mary to comfort her, which isn’t conventional, but the butler of heaven certainly wouldn’t shut her out.

When Mary stops crying, she says that Sam has quit and they don’t know what they’ll do. She explains that Sam knew Charles was going to break his engagement, but they were too scared to tell Mrs. Tranter. Mrs. Tranter checks on Ernestina. She asks whether Sam and Mary love each other, and Mary confirms that they do. Mrs. Tranter promises she’ll find Sam a job and Mary won’t have to leave her until she marries. She kisses Mary’s forehead. Mary goes downstairs and runs into Sam’s arms.