"Deben's wet fish shop" (no chips
). Deben tried to talk to Florence about it, but she deflected him back to Mrs Gamart. I think it was mentioned in a few other places too. I must admit that I am uncertain of the author's intentions here. Florence was given an out that might have let her stay onside with Mrs Gamart but deliberately didn't take it. This seems quite reasonable in context, but with more background knowledge (like we might assume Florence has after eight years in the town) may offer a different perspective.
The first book is presumably:
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, or a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ to his Poor Servant John Bunyan written by John Bunyan. The Ruskin book might be the smaller set published as just
Unto this Last (1860) or perhaps the larger collection
Unto This Last And Other Essays On Political Economy by John Ruskin (1912) - or there might be other editions too.
I don't know the Bunyan book, but I read the Ruskin book (the larger collection of essays) only a few years ago. I was inspired to tackle it on learning that Gandhi was influenced by it. It offers a very different view of economics and how it might work. Ruskin was searching for a "just" economy: one that takes into account that the usefulness of an item is not just in the item itself, but also in the capability of the holder to use it, and whether that use is good ("life giving") or bad ("life taking"). He emphasised education to lift people from less capable to more capable.
Having studied economics (briefly) I did find Ruskin's ideas intriguing, but some of his ideas don't translate so well into modern times. He seemed to be a believer in hierarchical social structures, and to think voting rights should be tied how much you earned. On the other hand, he also describes the power of the rich over the poor as slavery - they can either submit or starve. There are some subtleties in his ideas that take some getting your head around - they may seem contradictory, but it's not that simple. We could read this in the club, but we might have to discuss it in the P&R forum.
Here is a quote I posted from the collection that gives some feel for his opinions and his style of writing.
(ETA: Gender doesn't really come into Ruskin's essays, but given the time - 1860 - we might presume he would have thought neither Florence nor Mrs Gamart had any business getting involved in any of this business. Ruskin appeared to support education for women, but whether he was so far ahead of his time as to think beyond that is less clear.)
How the author wanted that to relate to Florence is not obvious to me. Florence could certain have done with some education in economics, but then Ruskin would seem to support Mrs Gamart as hierarchically and economically entitled to exert her influence.
ETA2: Having thought a bit more, the larger collection of Ruskin essays (that the linked quote comes from) does spend considerable time discussing the importance of art as part of the "true wealth" of the economy. So if the book that Florence keeps is the larger collection of essays then it would seem to suggest support for Mrs Gamart's arts centre over Florence's private little endeavour. Maybe.