Part 4, Chapter 27 Summary

A spinster living in the tenements observes the writing upon the walk, 'I Love Someone.' Considering this an artful confession, the woman ponders the meaning while alone in her abode. The woman's friends have left the city when the summer begins to wind down, and she is alone, and a little lonely. The woman hears the playing children exclaim when the evening approaches, wishing she had made arrangements for company that evening.

One of her best friends, Marigold Trask, had, just that day, been buried. Marigold had committed suicide. Remembering the day, the woman acknowledges that she alone is unattached and, had she been the one they had been viewing, none would have concerned themselves. Being single, and unencumbered by attachments, she would have been missed, but that was all. The woman has no fancies, no purposes, and her conscious...