Chapter 34 Summary

Lois finally tells her life's story in this chapter, and Arthur Springer listens without interrupting her. She beings with a play she had attended many years ago and the sight of two young people sitting in front of her very much in love. She remarks that she is now a widow, her husband having died in 1988. She tells Arthur that sometimes she would look out of her kitchen window at one of the oak trees on which a lone leaf still remained. She could not be sure whether this leaf was so deformed that it could not fall off the branch, or if it was healthy and strong. Either way the leaf was an anomaly.

She changes the subject and asks if Mr. Springer likes a good bread pudding. She informs him that she has a list of one hundred desserts arranged in...