Summary

When Lila suggests that she is the only person Reverend Ames knows who is going to hell, he is saddened by the thought. Disgusted with the idea of resurrection since Doll’s sins will preclude her, Lila goes to the river to wash away her baptism the next morning, and her belief that she is carrying a child causes her to recall Mellie and her finding a woman in labor as children.

Realizing that her husband will be happy to have a living child and will let her stay because of it, Lila returns home. Reverend Ames returns home from church to find Lila waiting for him on the porch and is happy at news of a child, but he admits to being upset when he woke to find her missing, so Lila stays closer to home. Realizing how often her husband...