Chapter 4 Summary

The chapter begins with Hardy telling the reader that Susan has not told Elizabeth-Jane about her real father for fear of losing her daughter's love and respect. Susan, we learn in a flashback, went with Newson to Canada before returning to England when Elizabeth-Jane was 12. She then learns from a friend that her "marriage" to Newson was not binding legally. Newson dies at see a year later, and Susan struggles to take care of her daughter. She notes that Elizabeth-Jane is inquisitive and smart, and decides that she must find a way to advance her in the world. She sets off to find Michael, then, in order to secure the money necessary to get her daughter an education, but she worries that Michael may have impulsively "drunk himself into the tomb." Because Elizabeth-Jane does not know about Michael, Susan decides to leave it...