Summary

Ester and Alvaro are by the river, a continuation of the scene in Chapter 30. Ester watches the boats and their passengers move through the water. She sees a young woman “leaned in the direction of the city as though this might encourage the boat to travel faster” (556). Ester describes what can be found “past this relentless greenery” within “London’s enclosing walls”: “its parlors that cradled and amplified laughter, its rebuilt theaters and newly widened streets” (556).

“The more Ester looked, the less tame the river appeared … the wildness of things came back to her” (556). Rivka looks down at Ester and Alvaro from atop a grassy hill, “shaking her head absently as though at two children” (557). Ester watches Alvaro in the water; “her husband: a propertied man, keeper of the ninety-nine year lease inherited from his father that would outlast their lifetimes” (557). Ester feels...