# III: Miss Leroy explained — Mark Rutherford’s Deliverance

> Chapter companion for Mark Rutherford’s Deliverance by Mark Rutherford.

## What happens

This chapter introduces Miss Leroy, the daughter of a French republican prisoner, and her unconventional ways in a provincial English town. It recounts her surprising marriage to the placid, unremarkable George Butts, and describes the character of their son, Clem Butts, a charismatic but hollow and self-serving man who rises in the world through opportunism.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Class and Inequality

Clem Butts's rise through the Church and his disdain for Dissenters highlight class mobility and the social advantages of conforming to the establishment.

### Love and Connection

Miss Leroy's mysterious marriage to George Butts, and her unconventional views on love and marriage, challenge conventional romantic and social bonds.

### Principles and Action

Miss Leroy's father and the narrator's grandfather refuse to illuminate for a French defeat, demonstrating principled political dissent despite mob violence.

## Character check-ins

### Miss Leroy

Daughter of a French prisoner, tall and straight, unconventional in habits and speech, marries George Butts to everyone's astonishment.

### George Butts

A placid, even-tempered miller's apprentice who marries Miss Leroy; known for his sleepy, unambitious nature.

### Clement

Son of Miss Leroy and George Butts; clever, extravagant, egotistical, and opportunistic, he adopts the Church of England and builds a successful school.

### Chalmers

A Glasgow M.A. who taught with Butts; a perfect scholar but poor and shabby, bitter about Clem's undeserved success.

### Mrs. Mobbs

Miss Leroy's neighbour who criticizes her untidiness and open-window habit, representing conventional domestic standards.

## Key lines

> What made that girl have George I can not think—but there!

The narrator's mother is utterly baffled by Miss Leroy's decision to marry George Butts.

_Expresses the community's bewilderment at the mismatch._

> He always held implicitly and sometimes explicitly that gifted people live under a kind of dispensation of grace; the law existing solely for dull souls.

Clem believed that talented individuals are above ordinary rules and morality.

_Reveals Clem's self-serving and elitist philosophy._

> She would walk out by herself on a starry night without a single companion, and cause thereby infinite talk...

Miss Leroy's solitary nighttime walks scandalized the townspeople.

_Illustrates her independence and the community's judgmental nature._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/mark_rutherford_s_deliverance_se/chapters/iii-miss-leroy
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/mark_rutherford_s_deliverance_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/mark_rutherford_s_deliverance_se/chapters