Chapter 31 Summary

Reta writes another letter, the fifth in the series. This time it is addressed to Peter Harding on the occasion of his death! She begins by mentioning his obituary, which had appeared in the Globe and Mail that morning. She tells him why she reads obituaries, saying that many years ago, when she was still a young writer, an older friend had advised her to read them because they contain the "putty" of life: the personal details which lend themselves so well to giving authenticity to a writer's fictional world.

After her comments about Peter Harding's life, Reta turns to her own difficulties. "I am going through some bleak days," she writes in her letter. She wants the comfort of the universe, but like Norah, she does not know how to take its component parts and assemble them into a cocoon of security...