During the "bank holiday" _Fanny_ with her chum _Mary_ goes to a neighboring town for an outing. There they meet two young men, _Alan Jeffcote_ and his friend. _Fanny_ departs with _Alan_, and they spend a glorious time together. On the way home _Mary_ is drowned. As a result of the accident the _Hawthornes_ learn that their daughter had not spent her vacation with _Mary_. When _Fanny_ returns, they question her, and though she at first refuses to give an account of herself, they soon discover that the girl had passed the time with a man,--young _Alan Jeffcote_. Her parents are naturally horrified, and decide to force the _Jeffcotes_ to have _Alan_ marry _Fanny_.
In the old mother of _Fanny_ the author has succeeded in giving a most splendid characterization of the born drudge, hardened by her long struggle with poverty, and grown shrewd in the ways of the world. She knows her daughter so little, however, that she believes _Fanny_ had schemed the affair with _Alan_ in the hope that she might force him to marry her. In her imagination the old woman already sees _Fanny_ as the mistress of the Jeffcote estate. She persuades her husband to go immediately to the _Jeffcotes_, and though it is very late at night, the old man is forced to start out on his disagreeable errand.
_Jeffcote_, a man of integrity, is much shocked at the news brought to him by old _Hawthorne_. Nevertheless he will not countenance the wrong.
_Jeffcote._ I'll see you're treated right. Do you hear?
_Christopher._ I can't ask for more than that.
_Jeffcote._ I'll see you're treated right.
Young _Alan_ had never known responsibility. Why should he, with so much wealth awaiting him? When confronted by his father and told that he must marry _Fanny_, he fights hard against it. It may be said, in justice to _Alan_, that he really loves his betrothed, _Beatrice_, though such a circumstance has never deterred the Alans from having a lark with another girl.
The young man resents his father's command to marry the mill girl. But when even _Beatrice_ insists that he belongs to _Fanny_, _Alan_ unwillingly consents. _Beatrice_, a devout Christian, believes in renunciation.
_Beatrice._ I do need you, Alan. So much that nothing on earth could make me break off our engagement, if I felt that it was at all possible to let it go on. But it isn't. It's impossible.