Summary

Isabel hurriedly leaves Miss Janeway’s after her realization that she wants to purchase her freedom from her husband. The narrative notes that: “Her husband and Serena Merle had together pushed her from her plaster pedestal upon which, she now realized, she had set herself so long ago, even as early as in her girlhood…” (71). Isabel ponders the treachery she was recently subjected to but is interrupted by Staines’ arrival to tell her that Miss Janeway’s maid had confessed to her that the old woman is very unwell and is expected to live only a few months more. When Staines tells Isabel that Miss Janeway’s maid will be in need of work soon, Isabel remembers that “[Isabel] had never known what is was to be without “a position” in the world” (74).

When Isabel arrived at Henrietta’s late at night, the...