Act 1 Part 5 Summary

Pike arrives, wearing clothes and accompanied by a soundscape that suggests he's in India. As he looks around, Flora sits at her table and Das paints. Flora narrates a letter to Mrs. Swan, whom she calls Nell, that explains if ever anyone sees a painting of her in a blue dress, she's writing this letter while the painting is being done. She refers to someone called "the enemy." Pike explains in a footnote, which he narrates, that the enemy was a critic with whom Flora had had a disagreement and whose head she poured beer over in a pub one night.

Pike's guide Dilip arrives, and tells him that they're at exactly the spot where Flora's cottage was all those years ago. Pike recognizes the site from a nearby tree, referred to in one of Flora's letters. As Dilip and Pike...