Summary

Chapter 5 opens with a description of the many rumors about Sylvain Leclair breaking both his legs after being hit by a car. Jeannette tried to bring him flowers, but she finds that he had exaggerated the entire incident and was in fact perfectly fine. Doctor Molineu threw a party at the house, and Midhat viewed it as a new opportunity to practice his French. The party rang with gossip and boisterousness, and Midhat learned that Laurent used to be in love with Jeannette as he watched Jeannette fight with Sylvain in the salon. As he drunkenly contemplated this, Laurent also revealed that he would be going to war soon to work as a doctor. Emotional at the prospect of losing perhaps the one man he had come to call a friend in France, he (again, drunkenly) gave Laurent the gold pocket watch his...