Indeed, a happy heart! I loved this mini-series.

I positively loved North & South. I so loved the attention to the hands throughout the movie: Thornton touching her hand when she gives him his tea cup... Margaret and Thornton shaking hands and the lingering touch..., Thornton tenderly touching her head when she fell...Thornton leaving he gloves after the disastrous proposal, and Margaret holding them...the holding of hands at the end scene, touching her face...Thornton's hand as he closes the train door....Lovely, lovely, all lovely.
(sigh)

The magic of the hand indeed... It's been a while, but now that I browsed through this old thread thanks to Karentea, I think I'll put the DVD in the machine again!

In the book there is also a fair amount of attention paid to hands and arms, IIRC. There is one lovely passage during one of Thornton's first meetings with Margaret, where he sits and watches her pour tea. He notices a little bracelet that keeps sliding down her forearm to her wrist, and she keeps pushing it back up her arm, and then he notices the way it slightly bites into the plump white flesh there.... It is really a very erotic scene - and written by a prim Victorian woman at that! ;)