But let me recommend another moment from the TV adaptation of Mrs. Gaskell’s North and South that has every woman I know clasping their hands at their heart and babbling “How romantic!” It’s the moment when the hard-headed hero, John Thornton (played by Richard Armitage), stands on the balcony of his cotton mill, watching the woman he loves — the woman who has rejected him — being driven away in a carriage as he mutters, “Look back at me.

