Summary

In Chapter Twenty-two, Myrna and Clara discuss what the type of treatment the quints received as children must have done to them. Ruth says she knows what that type of treatment does to a person, that it turns a young girl into an ancient mariner. Gamache is the only one who seems to be familiar with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He sits next to Ruth and questions her about her theory of Constance. Just as the mariner had to tell someone his secret in order to unburden himself, Ruth leads Gamache to believe that Constance also had a burden she needed to unload. Gamache believes that it was to Myrna that Constance intended to share her secret. He believes she was killed to keep her from telling her secret. He wonders if she told anyone else first. Before he leaves Clara’s...