Summary

“The Time of Frenzy” begins with a description of Filth’s reaction when Betty died while planting the tulips. He felt his soul leave him, looking down at Betty’s body and his own, “gazing emptied of all its meaning now” (108). “It has happened,” he said to himself. “It has occurred...Dead. Gone. Happened. Lost. Over” (108).

Betty’s funeral was small, mostly because Filth did not let anyone know. The church ladies attended, as Betty had been on the flower rota. Betty had always been serious about her flowers; “it was the tulips, [Filth] thought, that got her in the end” (109). Filth felt himself to be somehow inadequate without Betty. After a reception at the church, Filth was brought home by a woman named Chloe, who inspired Filth with a surprising lust. He sent her away.

The next morning...