Chapters 50-51 Summary

Hervé Joncour travels for eleven days to the Japanese port city of Yokohama and bribes an official for sixteen boxes of silkworm eggs from the southern part of the island. He tries to hurry across the northern parts of Asia and Europe in hopes that colder weather will delay the hatching of the silkworm eggs. He fills a ship with ice to chill the eggs for a six-day journey. He boards a train that stops on a summer day to take on water, and the remainder of the ice melts in the heat. All of his eggs hatch, and all of the silkworm grubs die.

Nine days later, Joncour arrives in Lavilledieu. He travels home by carriage. His wife, Hélène, sees the carriage from her door and resolves not to run away or cry. When her husband emerges, she...