Summary

Part Four begins in September 1907 with Esme suffering from depression after she has given her daughter up for adoption. She is starting to forget parts of her daughter, but Esme says she understood her perfectly. None of the words she has can define Her. Ditte writes to Harry, Esme’s father, concerned because she realizes that Esme is struggling. She notices that Esme is quiet and asks few questions. Ditte has found a place for Esme to go and get away with Lizzie: Cobblers Dingle in Shropshire. Mr. Lloyd is there to help the women if they need anything. Lizzie blossoms while there. Esme as narrator says of her, “she is mistress of this place” (190). Esme notices Lizzie aging. Of her she thinks she's “too old to do anything other than what she had been doing since she was eleven” (191).

Lizzie and...