Summary

Narration returns to the present as Florence leads Edward into the bedroom at their hotel. She takes off her shoes, narration referring to the tension she had felt with her mother when they had gone shopping for them. She starts to formulate the same sort of determination to make her perspective known that she uses when running the string quartet, but finds herself unable to do so when she sees Edward coming towards her. He tries to unzip her dress, but it is awkward and he fails. Florence uses this pause to suggest that she is nervous (which is nowhere near the truth of the depth of her feelings) but which releases the tension, as he agrees with her. As they sit, he lightly moves his hand up her thigh, becoming aware of a nervous twitch in her leg, and then his thumb playing...