Saw that, too and thought how strange a tip-----@veryhappy - you must be right, it’s a note. Wasn’t Cora’s expression strange from the upstairs window. She didn’t look angry
People did tip when visiting country houses. Some owners put up a notice - like in a bathroom - saying the staff didn’t accept tips. It was less customary to tip some people if you were a friend rather than a visitor. Money is money, after all.
I thought one thing stood out: that Violet is concerned about losing her friend and companion, that Isobel is a huge part of her life.
Why doesn’t Mr. Drew just tell his wife the truth about Marigold?
Different dog.
The dog in the opening credits and season 1 is a male named Pharaoh. The dog from season 2 onward is a female names Isis.
@Indiana91, I agree. I assume Mrs. Drewes would have some empathy – or, at least, more empathy – if she knew who Marigold really is. Maybe Mr. Drewes knows something about his wife that we don’t know. But it sure would make sense for him to tell her.
What is the legal situation with Marigold? Does Edith have the legal right to snatch her out of the only home she has ever known and put her in a “school”? They have boarding pre-schools? Ugh.
ETA: The Drewes are right about Edith. She doesn’t care about the welfare of her daughter-- if she did, she’d have left her in Switzerland with the prosperous family. Edith only cares about how she feels about Marigold, not about Marigold’s life. Mrs. Drewes wants to do the best she can for (what she thinks of as) her daughter.
“They have boarding pre-schools?”
Not quite pre-school, but have you read A Little Princess?
I thought the youngest ones in A Little Princess were about five. But I haven’t reread it in a while.
I don’t think this is fair. Edith doesn’t know what happened to Gregson. If he is alive, he and Edith could marry or just live together. If he’s dead–well, he’s a very, very wealthy man. If he left everything to Edith, she might actually be able to tell everyone to go jump in a lake and keep the child.
I actually know of a situation in which a woman got pregnant by a soldier stationed at a local base shortly before he was sent off to Vietnam, but didn’t find out until he had shipped out. She didn’t hear from him after he shipped out, so she assumed the worst and gave up the child. When he got home, he came back to her–not knowing about the child. He said that he just couldn’t deal with anything else while he was in combat–and he really was in the thick of things. He also said since he thought he might die, and he didn’t want to make it worse for her.
The child was lost to them. They tried, but the adoption was final and nobody was willing to give them any info. They married…but never had another child. They tried to find him again by publishing a notice in the college paper of the largest public U in the area giving his birth date when he was about 20. He didn’t attend the college—but his best friend did. When the student saw the ad, he called his friend. Young man answered the ad, and parents and young man agreed to meet, still not knowing if he really was their son.
When he walked in, all 3 of them almost fainted. He is the spitting image of his bio father. Without going into detail, his adoption story was not a happy one. He now lives in the same town as his bio parents and is in business with his bio dad.
So, remember that when Edith refused to go along with the adoption in Switzerland, Gregson hadn’t been missing all that long. Edith might have felt that she should delay a decision until she found out what happened to Gregson.
If you were in Edith’s situation and Gregson suddenly came back, would you want to have to tell him you gave up his child?
I don’t think Edith will go along with the boarding school idea for Marigold. She made that mysterious phone call to London right at the end and she spoke earlier about wanting to move to London with the child. Hopefully she will act on it!
Marigold would be Gregson’s only child if he turns out to have died in Germany. It’s possible she could inherit everything, or could inherit in conjunction with Edith.
The Rose/Aldridge story looks promising.
I thought the art dealer guy handed Carson a business card or something of that size. It seems significant because we were meant to see that, so I doubt it was just money.
Then Edith should not allow Mrs. Drewes to believe that Marigold is her daughter now, which is what Mrs. Drewes obviously believes. Edith is jerking around Marigold, and the Drewes. If the Drewes are temporarily fostering Marigold, somebody needs to tell Mrs. Drewes that.
And even though the story of your friend who placed her baby for adoption and then wanted him back is sad, we can’t have a system where people who place children for adoption get to change their mind at any time.
Edith should be honest, and make up her mind.
If you were in Mrs. Drewes’ situation, would you want Edith to be able to snatch your daughter away?
We don’t know if the Drewes legally adopted Marigold, so Edith may still have full claim to her.
Mrs Drewes keeps saying that she doesn’t like Edith treating Marigold like a plaything. I think that if she knew that Edith really cares she’d be less adverse to her visits.
I forgot what Mr Drewes told Mrs Drewes about Marigold’s past.
Of course we don’t want Mrs. Drews’ heart to break any more than Edith’s has been broken. The problem is that Edith was pushed into giving away her child. In her heart she would want to raise the child with Gregson, or without him if he is truly gone. I don’t think we can understand the enormous pressure young women were under in circumstances like these. She’s gone along with it so far because she hasn’t seen a way out. But she’s looking for a way out, as the telephone call hints at.
I don’t like how Rosamond bosses Edith around. I think Edith will finally tell the truth and get to keep Marigold.
Other questions - how did Anna become a suspect in the murder if no one knows about the rape? Just because she happened to be in London? And what IS Thomas doing?? At one point it sounded like shock treatment, but then we saw a syringe in his room. He looks terrible.
It is odd that Anna is a suspect. Greene (was that the name of rapey mcraperson?) let people know that Bates didn’t like him. Maybe he dropped hints to somebody that he had had some kind of interaction with Anna and that was the cause. It’s preposterous that she’s a suspect although I don’t think Bates is guilty. He answered his questions without any guile whatsoever.
What was Blake up to? After Mabel left he said something like, “we just have be observed”. ???
I think Blake was hinting that Gillingham would know he was “out” if Mary was seen with him.
How could Edith inherit from Gregson? He has a wife. Marigold is not legitimate. If Gregson is independently wealthy, I suppose he could have left his business, his money, at least some of it, to Edith, but he can’t not include his wife, can he?
As an adoptive mother, I don’t think this is fair. If you had hard times during the early life of your child, would you be willing to give him or her away to have a better life? I would not unless it were a life or death situation for the child.
My grandmother was born out of wedlock to a middle class widow in Germany in 1900. Her mother placed her in a foster home, sending money that the foster family, which was poor, depended on to survive. She had occasional contact with her mother and did meet her mother’s other children. So I think this kind of fostering arrangement was not unheard of then, when there were no foster or group homes run by the government.
I agree that if Mrs. Drewes was aware that Edith was Marigold’s mother, she might have a different attitude about Edith’s attention which must seem flighty and possibly dangerous without the biological tie. Or maybe not, hard to say. But for sure Mrs. Drewes is aware that Edith has much more power in any situation because of her social class. She also may think that her husband is the biological father of the child.
I love this description of Lord G. in yet another recap of the episode:
http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/downton-abbey-recap-season-5-episode-5.html