After returning to the Cedars following her brother’s death, Margaret learns through the lawyer Mr Slow that the fortune she had believed to be securely hers may not legally belong to her and that she could lose much of the wealth that has transformed her life, and as she suddenly faces the prospect of falling from the position of an independent woman of means into financial insecurity the motives of the three men who have courted her are tested, with Mr Maguire exploiting the dispute for his own purposes and Walter Rubb proving unable to offer the certainty she needs while John Ball continues to show her kindness and affection even when there is every reason to believe that she may have no fortune at all, and although Lady Ball resents the possibility of her son marrying Margaret and views the match through the interests of family and money, Margaret endures humiliation and uncertainty while trying to retain control of her own life and John becomes increasingly determined to place his feelings for her above his mother’s objections and questions of wealth, so that when the legal decision finally goes against Margaret and she loses the property that had once made her so desirable, John still wishes to marry her and Margaret is able to recognize that his affection is directed toward her rather than her money, bringing the novel to a close with her acceptance of a marriage founded on genuine attachment and with a woman who has spent most of her life serving others finally choosing a future according to her own judgment and feelings.