Part IV Summary

The narrator writes of his parting with Melissa as she leaves for the sanatorium in Jerusalem. She says that she wishes she were Justine, knowing that the narrator thinks of Justine even when he holds her in his arms, and that the situation is further complicated by the fact that Nessim has now fallen in love with her. The narrator assures her that she's welcome to come back anytime she wants and that he feels his love for her is intact, inside him. One night the narrator is wandering through the streets and notes that he's afraid to go home to his empty apartment for fear he might commit suicide as Pursewarden had done. He discovers that Clea's light is on and goes to her apartment instead. They talk and she tells him that she'd loved Justine as well.

When the...