As Rachel and Luke’s love deepens Rachel writes her first love-letter to him, but unfavorable rumors about Luke and the religious objections of her severe sister increase Mrs. Ray’s fears until Rachel is pressured to break off their correspondence against her own wishes, and when Luke’s absence makes the situation still more uncertain she suffers under the possibility that she has surrendered the man she loves while her mother gradually begins to understand that she may have acted unjustly toward her daughter, and meanwhile the Baslehurst election and the struggle over the brewery become entangled with local rivalries and personal interests, but as events unfold the accusations against Luke prove increasingly unreliable, Mrs. Ray regrets her earlier interference and comes once more to support Rachel’s attachment, and the dispute concerning the brewery is finally settled in a way that gives Luke a secure basis for his future, while Rachel and Luke overcome the misunderstandings that separated them and restore their engagement and Dorothea Prime is forced to reconsider the suspicions and rigid religious judgments that had helped cause Rachel’s unhappiness before ultimately recanting her opposition and allowing the novel to conclude with Rachel’s love vindicated and her future with Luke securely established.
