Summary

At the beginning of this chapter we are back in the nursing home; Claudia asks the nurses if they agree God is an unprincipled bastard, to which they reply with their usual bewilderment. Claudia turns to her own thoughts and says she would never have agreed to have Lisa christened but her two grandmothers together conspired and had the ritual performed without telling her. This angered Claudia, who saw the event simply as an opportunity for her grandmothers to maintain a superficial sense of propriety and to have a tea party.

Returning to the nursing home, Claudia asks Lisa, who is visiting her, whether she has resigned from the Church of England. Lisa replies she goes to church only for special occasions and, when pressed, says she is not sure she believes in God. Claudia replies she does, because nobody else could have made such a...