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Chapter 16: (Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) Marmee sits with March as Grace and Mr. Brooke withdraw to allow them their privacy. She asks him if Grace was his lover and even shakes him as he lapses into unconsciousness. Stopping herself, she goes through his possessions instead and finds the lock of Negro hair which she thinks is from Grace (and which is really Jimse's, given by Zannah in Chapter 13). She searches the hospital for Grace who has gone off her shift. The black laundresses, who think Grace is a snob, tell Marmee that Grace lives in the household of a Dr. Hale; they imply that Grace is having an affair with the doctor. Horrified, Marmee goes to Dr. Hale's sizeable mansion and demands to speak with Grace. Immediately she can see that Grace seems to be a close friend to both the Hales and not a mistress. Grace tells Marmee everything from when she first met March 22 years ago to the hug that she and March shared that led him to transfer to Oak Landing. She also fills in all the war hardships that she pieced together from March's delirious ramblings, and that he neglected to put in his letters to Marmee. She admits that March is infatuated with her, but stresses that it's not a real love but an idealistic attraction to her as a symbol of freedom. Marmee confronts Grace with the lock of Negro hair found in her husband's possessions. Grace unwinds her scarf and shows Marmee that her hair is completely different, then correctly identifies the hair as belonging to a child. Marmee leaves, knowing that Grace wasn't her husband's lover. But she still resents her husband for his infatuation with Grace and especially for not writing truthfully to her about his wartime hardships. Chapter 17: Mr. March's health gets worse. Grace tells Marmee that his extreme guilt over those whom he wasn't able to save is sabotaging his recovery. She urges Marmee to forgive him and to help him forgive himself. Marmee realizes that she does love her husband precisely for his self-destructive idealism. She tries to make March see that what is important is the effort he put into trying to help people, and not the outcome of whether or not he managed to save them. She further tells him that some things such as war have consequences that are too vast for any one individual like him to change, and that to think otherwise is prideful: he needs to let himself off the hook. He asks her to leave so he can sleep. Chapter 18 (Mr. March's viewpoint): March wakes to find that Marmee has returned to Concord to nurse Beth through a bout of scarlet fever. Marmee has left him a note, urging him to return home as soon as he's recovered. March slowly recovers and tries to help Grace around the hospital. He tends to the orderly Cephus White (who helped out Marmee in Chapter 15); the poor boy, recovering from a war-wound himself, has to have his leg amputated, and then he dies. March is filled with guilt, and Grace snaps at him to quit wallowing in it and get on with his life. He snaps back that she is so noble she can't possibly know anything about guilt. Grace then tells him her darkest secret: Mr. Clement's son, her half-brother, didn't die in a hunting accident. Grace shot him after he raped her, knowing she was his half-sister. Even worse, their father intended her to be his son's mistress. Grace feels that every disaster that happened to the Clements afterwards came from her act of violence. She tells March that she lives with her guilt by moving on with her life and trying to do good. He eagerly decides to go with her to help the Negro troops as the war progresses. She angrily tells him that the black race needs to manage its own destiny, and there will be black preachers and healers who can do a far better job for the black troops than he can. She tells him his place is with those who truly need him: his family. Chapter 19 (Mr. March's viewpoint): March returns home to Marmee and his daughters in Concord. He is still wracked with guilt, but he knows he needs to be there for his family. The End. |
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