A Tale of Tom

Between you and me:

One night, a woman who identified herself as Mrs. Gaskell appeared at my bedside and began to tell me a story below (in Japanese). I hastened to write it down!

A Tale of Tom

Ⅰ　（introduction → development → turn → conclusion）

1871 June.

A worker alighted at Milton station. Tom Higgins, who was seven years old when John Thornton and Margaret Hale got married,  is now a young man of 25. It was more than a decade since he left home to serve in a textile wholesaler at the age of 13.

 Tom lives with his adoptive father, Nicholas who retired a few years ago. His children (Mary and the adopted children) have their own families. Mary and his younger sister Susanna (a daughter of  Boucher) work in the communal kitchen at Thornton's Mill. Susanna has recently married and her husband has also started working there.

 Tom also started working at Marlborough Mill. The manufacturer, John Thornton, has more mills than ever before and has become a leader in the spinning industry. He and his wife, along with their three children, live in a house away from the mill, while John's mother Hannah lives in Marlborough as before. Margaret is happy to see Tom return home. John has high hopes for Tom who has knowledge of synthetic dyes and machinery.

July.

The second child, Harry Thornton (17), returns home from London for the summer holidays. Harry and Tom hit it off and start playing chess downstairs in Hannah's house (during Tom's breaks). Despite being a labourer, Tom had a knowledge of chess. This is because he had been forced to play it against the son of his last employer. Soon after, the first child, Rose Thornton (18), also joins them to watch the games. Tom falls in love with Rose the moment he meets her. The chess game was played using stones that Rose and her brothers picked up on the way as chess-pieces, but a  nice chess-set that Hannah buys replaces them.

September.

Harry confides in Tom his dream for the future, geodesy or surveying. "Instead of taking over my father's mills, I want to measure and map the earth. We'd use the universal longitude and latitude lines to represent all the points of the earth. Like the vertical and horizontal lines on a chessboard."

 On the day Harry returns to school in London, Tom heads to the meadow to see the train off. He sees Rose on the way and they both wave to Harry in the car. Going home, Rose says to Tom "you're like family to us" and he can't stop thinking about Rose.

 Nicholas Higgins dies and is buried beside his beloved daughter Bessy. Margaret hears Tom's confession that one of his sisters (the Boucher girl), who left Milton to serve as a needlewoman, has become a fallen woman. Margaret realizes how helpless she(Margaret) is.

Ⅱ　(introduction → development → turn → conclusion）

October.

Tom and Rose continue to play chess. The third child, Andrew Thornton (7), also joins them. The more Tom talks with her about the game and other things, the stronger his feelings for her become.

One day Tom confesses his feelings to Rose, that makes her refuse and leave the room as if to escape. From that day on, neither of them comes to the chess-room anymore.

November.

Hannah falls ill and Margaret nurses her. Hannah thanks Margaret and tells her what she had planned to say one day: "You have a brave heart ,Margaret. You are not a coward." After spending her last moments with John, Hannah dies. Fanny never came. (Her husband Watson failed in a speculation a few years earlier and is in financial ruin.)

 When Harry returns to Milton for Hannah's funeral, he notices that Tom and Rose are avoiding each other. Margaret hears from her daughter about what happened between Tom and Rose: "It's not that I hate Tom. His confession was so sudden that all I could do was run away. I wasn't ready to answer his seriousness at all." Hearing her daughter's words, Margaret remembers her-old-self.

1872 Feb.

Rose has stayed with her aunt (Edith Lennox) in London. She watches her cousin Sholto and his friend playing chess and misses Milton and the friendship with Tom. London is the city where the river smells bad, overflowing with people. She feels uncomfortable with the relatives who are only interested in social relationships and fashion. Rose start to truly realize Tom's sincerity.

 Tom's sister, who has become a fallen woman and lost her way, comes to live with him in Milton. Margaret tries to support her, but the sister can no longer bear the scorn of those around her and kills herself.

Ⅲ　(introduction → development → turn → conclusion）

May 1872. 

John receives a report from an overseer that someone has been stealing things in the mill and that Tom is suspicious. John brushes off the suspicion. However, people around Tom start to give him a cold look. It is also discovered that the expensive chess-pieces are somehow missing. There was a pervasive atmosphere of seeing him as the culprit.

An Evidence that Tom was at the scene of selling articles illegally comes to light. John questions him who refuses to deny the allegations. John loses his temper and curses Tom: "Do you know who was standing where you're standing now 18 years ago? Nicholas Higgins was. He bowed down to me. He asked me for a job to feed you. And yet, what have you done?"

 Tom's sister Suzanna comes to Margaret crying, to tell the truth that it was her husband who stole, not her brother. Meanwhile they also discovers that it is Andrew who took the chess pieces. The boy apologises in tears: "I wanted what my brother had too."

 John and Margaret go to Tom's house and ask him why he tried to take the blame. He says shortly: "For my sister's happiness.'" Then about the pieces.: "Though I didn't steal those fine chess-pieces, I did take something from that room. It's a stone Rose picked up."

Ⅳ　(introduction → development → turn → conclusion）

1872 July.

Harry and Rose return to Milton. When Harry learns that Tom has left the mill, he complains to his parents about how much Tom has encouraged him. He then declares: "I want to work in geodesy. Rather than take over your mill ."  As arguing with his son, John who had realised the need for world-standard maps and the world-standard time, becomes more understanding of his son's ambitions.

 Tom decides to leave Milton to help his friend run a sewing machine factory.

 John, who heard about what happened between his daughter and Tom, asked Tom: "I was going to be a bachelor for the rest of my life if I couldn't marry Margaret. Are you prepared to say that you will never marry anyone else but her?"

Tom does not answer. "What if I say yes?  Or no?　No matter how I answer, nothing will change." "Master, I have the utmost respect for you. But next time we meet, I want us to be equal business partners." "You 'll see  how a pawn can be promoted."

 When Rose learns that Tom still treasures the stone she picked up, she reveals her mother about her feelings for Tom. Margaret tells her the story of herself and John almost 20 years ago and the meaning behind the name Rose. She then hugs her daughter, saying that if their feelings for each other do not change, the time will come.

 Next morning, Tom gets on the train. When it reaches the meadow, he sees Harry waving his jacket. And Rose, standing next to her brother, waving her hand ,then covering her face with her hand in tears, moves away.

end

Mrs. Gaskell ! I have fulfilled my promise to you！