Summary

In the fourth section of the book, Barnes introduces the personage of Emma Fischoff, a married woman with whom Pozzi embarked on a lifelong affair, though still occasionally seeing other women. The pair were each other’s life partners, in a sense, travelling every year around the world, joining in ‘union’ in San Lazarro and renewing their vows there every so often, and doing so in the public eye. She contributed to the increasing complexity of Pozzi’s life, as he also renovated the Broca – the hospital where he was Head of Surgery – and instituted a new gynecological service there.

Meanwhile, Jean Lorrain, gossipy as ever, sought to draw Montesquiou into a duel for years. Montesquiou refused no matter how large the insult hurled at him, yet after Lorrain began a rumor that Montesquiou had fled the scene of a devastating fire at...