They can find no trace of the men, not even footprints. Harry suggest that Oliver was dreaming, but Oliver is adamant that he saw them. Giles inquires about the men at different alehouses but comes up with nothing. Oliver and Mr. Maylie also ask around the marketplace to no avail.
Rose has recovered and is able to leave the sick room. However, sometimes she seems sad. One day at breakfast, Harry speaks to her alone. He admits he should have left, and Rose tells him she wishes he had. He said he came because the idea of losing her had been agonizing. He had hoped to win fame and come back to claim her. Now he merely offers her his heart.
Rose wishes to remain friends. She doesn’t want people to believe he was forced into a marriage with her because he had impregnated her—for that is what the world would assume on why a man like him would marry someone like her. It would interfere with his future prospects in Parliament. Rose also refuses to associate with people who would hold her mother in bad esteem, and who would blame her for the circumstances of her birth which she had not control over.
Harry asks if his prospects had been different, would she have had him. She doesn’t think it is worthwhile to dwell on something that is not a reality and never will be. He begs her to answer the question, and she tells him she would have. He asks her to let him repeat this question in another year. She tells him her answer will be the same, but he asks to be allowed to repeat it anyway. She agrees.