After Lopez’s death Emily returns to her father’s home and slowly recovers from the damage of her marriage while Arthur Fletcher, who has loved her faithfully from the beginning, renews his devotion without pressing her to forget the past before she is ready, and meanwhile the Duke of Omnium’s coalition government grows increasingly exhausted and divided until it finally falls, leaving the Duke convinced that his premiership has ended in failure and personal disgrace even though the Duchess, Phineas Finn, and his closest friends remind him that his honesty and sense of public duty have remained intact, and with time Emily accepts Arthur’s patient love and marries him while the Wharton family regains stability and the Duke and Duchess return to private life at Matching, allowing the novel to close by contrasting the instability of political power and social ambition with the more enduring values of loyalty, responsibility, love, and personal honor.
