Quinn furthers the theme of The Pressures of Fertility on Intimate Life via Francesca’s attempt to emerge from her losses with the pursuit of a new husband with whom she might have children. The excerpt opens with the image of Francesca watching snow “wrap a shroud around the tree branches” (66), which conveys the convergence of death, cleansing, and renewal at once: The “shroud” references death, and the snow alludes to cleansing and renewal. When Francesca decides to go to London, she is staging a small revolt against the stillness of mourning that she’s been trapped inside since losing John and the baby. At the same time, what pushes her toward remarriage is her intense longing for a child. When she tells Michael, “I want a baby” (96), the reader understands that her desire to be a mother comes before her plans to remarry; the husband she’s “shopping for” is a means to the child. She doesn’t seek out an intimate connection like she had with John because she understands that in her society, love isn’t a prerequisite to marriage and motherhood. At the same time, her desperation for a child inhibits how she can imagine a second husband at all.

The stakes of Francesca and Michael’s forbidden romance begin to change in the Hyde Park bench scene, simultaneously complicating the novel’s theme of Finding Love Again After Loss. Here, Francesca begins to see Michael anew. In the past, he was a more static figure in Francesca’s life: her husband’s confidante and cousin and her own chummy companion. At the park four years after John’s death and their temporary separation, Francesca turns to Michael mid-sentence about John, expecting the familiar face, and instead notices “the way the curve of his lower lip [i]s really quite sensual” (101). She stands up so fast that she nearly loses her balance—a physical response that conveys her shock at her changed impression of Michael. Instead of feeling relieved or curious by her intrigue in Michael, Francesca has a panicked response. Her marriage to John is no longer a circumstantial barrier to a potential relationship between her and Michael, yet Francesca fears betraying her late husband. Her defense in the carriage afterward, that she won’t find a marriage like John’s because “a woman simply doesn’t find love like that twice in a lifetime” (100), foreshadows the burgeoning relationship between her and Michael. Violet’s counsel that she might find a man who suits her “equally well, just in a different way” (106), underscores the possibility that Francesca might find love again with Michael while dispelling her fears of “dishonoring John.” The chapter leaves Francesca wondering what might happen if she were to feel real love for another man again; this unanswered question augments the narrative tension and heightens the stakes of Francesca and Michael’s continued relationship.

Meanwhile, Michael’s portions of the excerpt develop the theme of The Gap Between Social Duty and Private Longing. In the chapters in which the narrator inhabits his consciousness, Michael’s internal monologue reveals his continued internal conflict. In Chapter 5, for example, he registers the difference between the Francesca he left and the Francesca he's reuniting with: “There was an air of availability, a horrible, torturous knowledge that John was gone” (76). The word “horrible” implies that he feels lingering guilt over his attraction to Francesca despite John’s death, underscoring his continued moral dilemma and fears of betraying his late cousin. In Chapter 7, the narrative reifies Michael’s guilt, shame, and longing via the image of John’s boots; Michael is eager to get them off and orders Reivers to pack up the entire wardrobe . Wearing John’s clothes intensifies Michael’s fears of stealing his late cousin’s life; indeed, he’s already holding John’s title, spending John’s money, and sleeping in John’s room. Michael feels a social obligation to step into John’s life and assume his responsibilities; at the same time, he fears that honoring this duty will only risk exposing his taboo longing for John’s widow. The boots therefore represent Michael’s inarticulable feelings: He will accept the office but not the impersonation because impersonating John while maintaining boundaries with Francesca would weigh too heavily on his heart and conscience. The fever that immediately follows the boot scene further underscores the detriments of Michael’s conflict between duty and desire. His body collapses under the weight of his social obligations.

Michael’s bout of malaria forces him and Francesca back into physical proximity and complicates their feelings for each other. Francesca, who has lost a husband in his sleep, finds Michael feverish in bed and reacts through her recent grief; fearing that Michael will die, too, she realizes that “[s]he c[a]n’t imagine a world without him” (121). The image of her fetching her own pink coverlet and sitting beside Michael’s bed throughout the night creates an intimate mood. Francesca isn’t yet ready to identify her concern for Michael as romantic love, but Michael’s revelation that his sickness “[i]s easier” with her by his side suggests that love is developing between them. On his sickbed, Michael is able to drop the rake facade and engage with Francesca more authentically, allowing her to see his true self. This dynamic paired with Violet’s explicit question about the nature of Francesca and Michael’s relationship compels Francesca to acknowledge the emotions blossoming between them. She protests that the idea is wrong yet privately muses on her new awareness of Michael’s handsomeness—revealing her developing feelings for him. The teasing exchange that follows, with Michael invoking her old request to “tell [her] something wicked” (141), further challenges their old dynamic and asks them to see each other as new individuals beyond their public personas. The more time they spend together over the course of these chapters, the better able they are to imagine a new intimacy between them.