Mary Datchet plans to go to the United States

Mary Datchet’s plan to go to America is a declaration of purposeful independence, voiced as Ralph Denham considers leaving his work for a quieter life in the country. She presents the journey not as escape but as preparation: she intends to learn how to organize a movement and bring that knowledge back. The exchange shifts Ralph’s view of Mary, revealing the strength of a friend whose ambitions are not simply an adjunct to his own.

Background and Decision

Mary’s resolve belongs to a life already shaped by work and public purpose. She earns, or intends to earn, her own living; her habits and bearing suggest someone who has left behind the position of an “irresponsible spectator” and joined the ranks of workers. At her office, she takes on the difficult task of organizing a series of entertainments to raise money for a suffrage society short of funds, imagining a program that could draw notable people and bring the cause’s arguments before Cabinet Ministers. Her work joins practical organization to an appetite for experiment and reform.

That public commitment is tested when the suffrage vote slips out of women’s reach through a Parliamentary maneuver. The setback throws the office into anger and renewed argument. Mrs. Seal urges patient work for justice, while Mr. Clacton responds by proposing a more systematic campaign: revised records, new leaflets, and a network of information connecting organizations across England. The defeat does not end the work; it makes its scale and duration harder to ignore. Against this background, Mary’s intention to go abroad for training carries a concrete political purpose.

The Conversation with Ralph

The plan takes shape during a walk across a field with Ralph, who has resolved to make a break of his own and seek a country cottage. Mary supports his decision with cheerful firmness, then distinguishes her course from his: her destination will be America. She imagines learning there how to organize a movement, so that she can return and show Ralph how it is done. Her statement turns a shared conversation about departure into two different projects—his withdrawal to the country and her further engagement with political work.

Mary’s encouragement does not persuade Ralph to abandon his plan. Instead, it makes him look at her independently of himself and of his absorption in Katharine Hilbery. He sees her walking ahead across the plowed field, a powerful, somewhat clumsy figure, and recognizes her courage. The moment matters because his respect is no longer merely the comfort of having a loyal, sensible friend: he briefly apprehends Mary as a person with a direction and purpose of her own.

Friendship and Unspoken Feeling

The conversation also exposes an imbalance in what Ralph asks of Mary. He wants to leave, yet does not want her to go; she points out the contradiction. Earlier, after Ralph proposes marriage for reasons he judges selfish and half-hearted, Mary keeps her anguish from governing her answer and tells him they can remain friends. She has loved him enough to feel that she could have given him everything, but she still promises the friendship and help he asks for.

Her American plan therefore stands beside, rather than dissolving, her private disappointment. Mary does not make her future dependent on Ralph’s choices. When she describes the journey as a way to acquire organizing experience and return to the cause, she asserts an independent ambition within a friendship in which Ralph has often relied on her support while remaining preoccupied with Katharine.

Significance and Outcome

The novel establishes the plan as an intention, not as a completed journey: Mary says she will go to America, learn, and come back, but the cited events do not show her departure or return. Its significance lies in what the decision clarifies. The rejected suffrage vote strengthens the context for sustained organizing, while Mary’s proposed travel gives that work a personal direction beyond the immediate frustrations of the office.

The scene also reverses the usual direction of attention between the friends. Ralph has been absorbed in his own choices and in Katharine; Mary’s declaration makes him stop and recognize her courage. Her proposed absence is not simply a threat to their friendship or a romantic obstacle. It expresses a vocation and a claim to movement of her own, even as the conversation leaves visible how difficult it is for Ralph to want both his freedom and her continued presence.