Aurora Leigh: Book 4 Summary & Analysis

Marian continues telling Aurora about how she worked as a seamstress for about a year until the next time she saw Romney. A fellow seamstress named Lucy got sick, and Marian took it upon herself to try to nurse Lucy back to health, sitting by her bed and losing her own seamstress job. Lucy slowly faded away and eventually died. When a man came to collect the corpse, Marian realized suddenly that it was Romney. She silently vowed not to be parted from him again. She hoped Romney wouldn’t be angry at her for leaving behind the job he arranged for her, but he started coming by often to visit.

One day, Romney told Marian that he believes all people are equal and that class is a false idea to keep people apart. He felt that in spite of their class differences, Marian should be his wife. When Aurora interrupts to ask if Romney loves Marian, she says that he loves everything, which includes her. Aurora considers this and wonders to herself if what Romney feels for Marian really is love.

Marian tells Aurora she feels more fit to be Romney’s “handmaid” than his wife, but she’s determined to do her best. Just then, Romney himself enters, surprised to see Aurora. She explains that Lady Waldemar sent her. The two of them speak amiably, but with a tension that Aurora notices. She tells Romney that she understands why he wants to marry Marian and wishes him well. Romney promises to live with his new wife as proudly as if she came from royalty.

As Aurora leaves, Romney follows her. He says the area is dangerous and that he should walk with her for a while. They walk quietly, with Aurora still unable to decide how she feels about Romney and why he makes her uncomfortable even though she doesn’t hate him. He takes her to her door and says goodnight.

A month passes. Aurora feels that her visit has helped justify Romney and Marian’s match, while offering no help to Lady Waldemar, as least as far as Aurora can tell. Eventually the day of the wedding comes. The whole event is full of poor and sick people that Romney knows from his charity work. Aurora is moved by pity and filled with unease by these people, thinking the wedding feels more like a funeral. Aurora talks with the bridesmaids, who keep thinking they see Marian arriving, but it’s not her.

Aurora asks Romney’s aristocratic but radical friend, Lord Howe, what’s going on with the delay. He isn’t sure but thinks that maybe Marian has lost her mind, just like Romney already has. Aurora can tell Lord Howe doesn’t approve of Marian. Lord Howe admits this and says that Romney only likes to play at love, like an actor. All of a sudden, there’s a murmur among the wedding crowd.

Romney reads a letter on the altar and gasps. He says there will be no marriage, so everyone should go home. But many in the wedding crowd don’t believe his story. They believe Romney has tricked and taken advantage of Marian because she’s poor, so they start to attack Romney. Aurora is so shocked by all this that she passes out.

Aurora wakes up and learns that Lord Howe helped get her out of the crowd. A couple hours later, Lord Howe brings Aurora the letter that Marian sent to Romney to be delivered at the wedding. It wishes Romney goodbye, saying that Marian isn’t good enough for him. For days after reading the letter, Aurora tries to make sense of it and how Marian seems to love Romney but resists marrying him.

Romney searches for Marian, who has gone missing, for days, then weeks, with no luck. Aurora hints that it’s possible Lady Waldemar intervened in some way to convince Marian to send that letter, but Romney doesn’t want to hear it, saying that Lady Waldemar herself has been sick with worry ever since Marian disappeared. Romney admits that when he and Aurora argued so many years ago, she may have had a point: Aurora’s decision to chase her dream as a poet in London has ruined no one else’s life, while Romney’s decision to do charity work hasn’t changed much and may have even had unintended negative consequences for people like Marian.

Aurora tries to reassure Romney, saying that with the charity work he does, he is like the first nail holding together wood, which doesn’t realize how important it is. Romney accepts the encouragement and in turn encourages Aurora to keep trying to make great art. They part ways, and Aurora has more respect for Romney than she did before.