Summary

Arthur Bender, the narrator for this section, recalls how Daniel Varsky came to his home in Highgate asking to see Lotte Berg, Arthur’s wife. Arthur assumed Daniel was one of Lotte’s readers and first scolded the boy for coming so late. Despite his reservations, Arthur let him in the house. Arthur breaks into his story to tell how his life with Lotte ran like clockwork. He describes their daily walks to the swimming hole each morning as well as his work schedule which took him out of town from Tuesday to Thursday.

Arthur admits to the reader that his wife was a mystery to him. She and her family had been forced to leave their home in Nuremerg before World War II and lived in a transit camp for a year. Lotte was seventeen then. Lotte had left the...