Summary

Through things she heard about him, and things she noticed, the narrator realized that people were often angry with the lover. He had a charming manner, but people soon saw through his charm. Sometimes she wondered if he needed to be with a woman to anchor "him in the real world" (95). With time, she realized the falsity of things he told her. She "believed everything he said" at first, because she "did not know that he could lie" (96). The way she saw him kept changing.

Sometimes the narrator takes out the French poem and studies it. Though it is a relic, she recently had a moment where the poem seemed like a recent piece of correspondence.

A "feeling of emptiness" entered the relationship (99). The narrator tries locating when it began. While writing the novel, she struggles to trust herself (100).

While out together one...