North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell chapter 34 | Audiobook

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell chapter 34 "False and True" narrated by Isaac BirchallSubscribe on YT or Join the Book Club on KO-FI and support me as an independent creator :D⁠https://ko-fi.com/theessentialreads⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfOFfvo05ElM96CmfsGsu3g/join⁠Summary:Margaret is having a very hard time dealing with her mother’s passing. It weighs constantly on her mind and Frederick too, weighs heavy on her. Her father paces up and down the house constantly while waiting for word from Frederick saying he has safely left England. Mr Thornton comes to visit them a few days after the funeral. He rings Mr. Hales hand tenderly, and when he looks to Margaret, he sees a deep suffering on her face and sees that she isn’t actually holding up well. Margaret leaves the two men to talk while she goes on with her needlework. Mr. Thornton is able to keep Mr. hale engaged in conversation, and Margaret is very thankful for this. Dixon then comes into the room looking worried and asking for Margaret. In Margaret’s room, once the door is closed, Dixon tells her that a police inspector has come to see her and has been let into the her father’s study. The inspector hasn’t said anything and only wishes to talk to Margaret. In the study, the inspector greets Margaret, but is shocked by her haughtiness. The inspector tells her that the man Leonards passed away following a fall that he had at the Outward Station a few days before. The man was involved in a scuffle, following which Leonards fell. He tells her that someone claimed to have seen her at the station with that man that pushed Leonards. Margaret refutes this with a few curt words, not giving the inspector any emotion. Apparently a grocers assistant claimed that the woman with the man was miss Hale, but is not fully certain. After Leonards got up from his fall, he murmured something about making a telephone call and then wandered off. He fell down in the road and was then taken to the hospital unconscious; he never regained consciousness enough to be able to give a deposition to a magistrate. The inspector then asks Margaret again if she denies these claims, which she does, and though it sounds mechanical response which Margaret gave, but not knowing her enough, he does not question it further. Margaret, though not moving a muscle, is deeply hurt by her own lie. Gathering up his things, the Inspector says that if anything more comes from his questioning the other witnesses, then she may have to come to court, but again Margaret is unflinching. She leads the man to the door, and takes him out of the house, after shutting the door behind her, and going back into the study, locking this door too, she collapses on the floor. SEO stuff I don't want to do. Elizabeth Gaskell's classic, "North and South" sees Margaret Hale's live uprooted as her family moves to the north of England. Initially disgusted by the ugliness of the industrial town of Milton, Margaret develops a strong sense of social justice after seeing the poverty and suffering of local mill workers.