Robert is working in Oxford and sending money home whilst Ruby Pratt has returned from Pontefract after splitting with her gentleman friend. Gabriel Cochrane, whose wife has died and whose foundry has been repossessed by the bank, es to Candleford, penniless, and Dorcas employs him in her fe where the work interests Sydney. After Edmund has llected money from Robert at the post office, he arrives home saying he has been robbed. The whole village rallies round Emma.