Maud Ruthyn—Meg Hawkes

Maud Ruthyn—Meg Hawkes is a relationship forged under the restrictions of Bartram-Haugh: Maud’s care for Meg, a poor and isolated young woman, becomes the basis for Meg’s private warnings and eventual efforts to help Maud reach safety. Their bond turns compassion into trust, and trust into action, as Meg risks punishment to aid the woman who had treated her with kindness.

Care During Meg’s Illness

When Meg is gravely ill and appears neglected, Maud asks Doctor Jolks to arrange a nurse and comforts for her, offering to pay for them. Maud and Millicent Ruthyn enter Meg’s room when she gives no answer, tend to her bed and the darkened room, and continue visiting her as she recovers. Their kindness is not immediately met with thanks: Meg remains quiet and guarded, while Millicent eventually refuses to accompany Maud on the visits.

Maud gently tells Meg that she ought to thank Millicent. Meg instead takes the tip of Maud’s finger, draws it beneath the bedclothes, and clasps Maud’s hand to her lips, weeping. She explains that the care was Maud’s initiative, not Millicent’s, and recalls having treated Maud badly before. The scene makes the relationship’s origin explicit: Meg’s gratitude is not a polite response to charity but a powerful attachment to the person whose kindness she believes she has not deserved.

Meg speaks of Maud with striking humility, saying she is better to her than her parents and that she would give her life for her. The narrator describes this as an expression of love and devotion, especially notable because Meg is naturally proud. Meg’s affection is also bound to trust: she cannot bear Maud to suspect that she might betray or deceive her.

A Bond Kept Under Watch

Once recovered, Meg cannot freely show her regard. She tells Maud that if her father sees them speaking as friends, he will suspect her of carrying tales and may try to make her obtain money from Maud. Meg fears that this would bring her further trouble at home, and she does not want money spent on her behalf. Though she keeps her distance, she leaves Maud with the promise that she may be able to do her a good turn someday.

That guarded promise matters in the setting of Bartram-Haugh, where Meg’s father watches her and Maud’s movements are constrained. In the Windmill Wood, Meg warns Maud not to be alone with Dudley Ruthyn. She gives no explanation, and the warning remains brief and difficult to interpret; Maud is left to wonder what danger Meg has perceived. Their communication depends on passing opportunities and few words, because Meg cannot speak openly while her father is nearby.

Trust Put into Action

When Maud is trapped within the grounds, Meg finds a way to pass along practical advice. She tells Maud that the gates are locked and that dogs guard the grounds, so an ordinary attempt to leave is not possible. Instead, Maud should write to her cousin at Elverston; Meg will persuade Tom Brice to carry the note. She arranges a meeting near the mill, timed to her father’s absence, and instructs Maud to bring Mary Quince. She also warns her that a French woman associated with Dudley must not learn of the plan.

Meg’s help is not merely a gesture of sympathy. She understands that Maud’s confinement requires secrecy, a message, an ally, and careful timing. Her warning that Maud must not reveal what she knows even to the woman accompanying her shows how completely Meg’s loyalty has become part of Maud’s means of seeking help. Maud, for her part, accepts the danger of the plan and relies on Meg’s judgment.

Later, Meg reaches Maud with a more urgent warning. She says she has heard Dudley and her father talking at the mill, suspects that they intend to harm Maud, and cautions her not to eat or drink anything offered there. She gives Maud a piece of bread and recommends water from the jug, while making clear that she does not know the whole plan. Meg intends to go after dark to Elverston for help, since she cannot safely leave sooner. She assures Maud that she will stand by her and again connects that resolve to Maud’s earlier kindness.

Risk, Reciprocity, and Significance

Meg’s effort to reach help brings a direct cost. As Maud escapes in Tom’s carriage, Meg runs after it and is caught by her father, who strikes her and locks her in a cottage. She manages to get away and continues toward Elverston, hoping to bring Maud’s friends back. When she catches up with the carriage, she cannot take Maud’s offered hand because her arm is broken. The injury is presented as the consequence of her attempt to help, not as an abstract proof of loyalty: Meg has already been punished, yet she has continued on her errand.

The reunion briefly reverses their earlier positions. Maud, who once tended Meg’s sickbed, now welcomes her into the carriage and offers her a place beside her; Meg’s impaired arm makes the cost of the rescue attempt visible. Their bond has moved from one-sided care, as Meg initially understands it, to reciprocal protection. Maud’s kindness gave Meg a reason to trust her, while Meg’s warnings and actions help Maud resist isolation and seek assistance. Their relationship is therefore one of the novel’s intimate counterforces to the secrecy and control surrounding Maud at Bartram-Haugh.