Chapter 45, The Vase Summary

Thérèse has left for the village. In the dining room, Léonie looks at a porcelain vase on the mantel and wishes it would break. Léonie finds the piece of Quimper dish in her pocket, then walks to the woods. She lies down on a strip of carpet that has been used as a pew. The makeshift shrine has been restored, and various religious trinkets are lying about. Baptiste arrives, and Léonie tells him Thérèse's story that she and Thérèse are not cousins but sisters, fathered by a German officer. Baptiste does not believe Thérèse's stories, but he listens to Léonie's theory that it may have been Louis who impregnated Antoinette. As Léonie kisses...