Pages 46 - 60 Summary

Everyone becomes silent, and the silence and the otherwise stillness of the day becomes a sort of prison, especially for Giles and his wife Isa (who senses Giles is struggling with anger). Mrs. Swithin breaks the silence by inviting the guests on a tour of Pointz Hall. Only William Dodge gets up to go, Mrs. Manresa claims she is too tired.

Mrs. Swithin provides a very fractured, forgetful tour of her stately summer home, forgetting who the people are in portraits on the wall (though one looks the best by moonlight, she attests), forgetting William's name, and otherwise coming off as a senile old woman. William, in his head, thinks about his own problems - his loveless marriage, a child born to his wife that is not his - and feels a strange urge to confess his troubles to Swithin, but...