NovelGuide: Silas Marner: Novel Summary: Chapter 13

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Chapter 13

Finding the enchanting child with golden curls suddenly in his home and seeing her mother’s frozen body outside in the snow, Silas decides to go into town to report both the woman’s death and the discovery of the new joy in his life. When the old weaver invites himself in the back door of the party, Godfrey is one of the first people to see him. When Silas begins to speak about the dead woman in the snow, Godfrey immediately realizes that she’s his wife. Eliot details his thoughts, saying, "Godfrey felt a great throb: there was one terror in his mind at that moment: it was, that the woman might not be dead. That was the evil terror..."
As the evening progresses it soon becomes obvious that Silas has become attached to his newly found treasure. When the women of the household ask to hold her, Silas protests, saying, "I can’t part with it, I can’t let it go."
Soon a search party is organized to locate the body; Godfrey eagerly goes along to make sure his wife is silenced permanently. He returns home a few hours later, exuberant that Molly is gone for good. Now, he thinks, he will be free to marry Nancy. He’s even glad that he won’t have to be father to his child, though he tells himself he’ll see that she is well cared for.