The Woodlanders · Chapter
Chapter XXVII explained
Fitzpiers tells Grace he has declined the opportunity to buy a practice in Budmouth, disappointing her.
What happens
Fitzpiers tells Grace he has declined the opportunity to buy a practice in Budmouth, disappointing her. He then visits Mrs. Charmond, who is in a melancholy mood and insists they must stop seeing each other. She reveals she is going away to Middleton Abbey. After he leaves, she learns from a maid that Grace was once engaged to Giles Winterborne, and realizes her own agent's refusal to renew Winterborne's leases contributed to the broken match. She resolves to do something for Winterborne.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
The chapter explores the tensions within Fitzpiers's marriage to Grace and his illicit attraction to Mrs. Charmond, highlighting the conflict between romantic desire and social duty.
Isolation and Community
Mrs. Charmond's melancholy and self-imposed seclusion contrast with the watchful community of Hintock, where her relationship with Fitzpiers is already a subject of gossip.
Fate and Irony
Mrs. Charmond learns that her own agent's actions contributed to breaking off Grace's engagement to Giles, the very man whose loss now indirectly affects her own romantic entanglement.
Characters to notice
- Grace Melbury
Grace eagerly meets Fitzpiers, hoping he has accepted the Budmouth practice, but is disappointed when he says he has declined it.
- Edgar Fitzpiers
Fitzpiers tells Grace he has refused the practice, then visits Mrs. Charmond, where they discuss their relationship and she insists he stop coming.
- Felice Charmond
Mrs. Charmond is in a deeply melancholy state, tells Fitzpiers they must part, and announces she is going to Middleton Abbey. Later she learns about Grace's former engagement to Giles and feels remorse.
- Giles Winterborne
Mentioned as the man Grace was once supposed to favor, whose loss of houses (due to Mrs. Charmond's agent) broke off the match.
- Timothy Tangs
Seen by Mrs. Charmond climbing the lawn against orders; he falls and rolls down the slope, causing her to laugh uncontrollably.
Key passages
“I have altered my mind. They want too much—seven hundred and fifty is too large a sum—and in short, I have declined to go further. We must wait for another opportunity. I fear I am not a good businessman.”
Fitzpiers tells Grace he has changed his mind about buying the practice because the price is too high, and admits he is not skilled in business.
Fitzpiers's decision disappoints Grace and reveals his irresponsibility.
“It must not be, you know. It won't do.”
Mrs. Charmond tells Fitzpiers that their relationship cannot continue.
She resolves to end their affair, at least for now, due to social pressures.
“In refusing that poor man his reasonable request, I foredoomed my rejuvenated girlhood's romance.”
Mrs. Charmond realizes that by denying Giles Winterborne's lease renewal, she inadvertently destroyed the romance between him and Grace.
She feels remorse for her indirect role in breaking up Grace and Giles.