Chapters 36-38 Summary

The next morning, Hervé Joncour negotiates with Hara Kei's representative a price for fifteen strips of mulberry bark with silkworms. Hara Kei and his household have gone away. Joncour looks in vain for a personal message to him. He sees that the birds have returned to the aviary and are locked inside again.

Two days later, Joncour leaves the village. He sees a flock of birds resting in the trees and fires six shots from his revolver to startle them. The birds burst into the air in such a large group that a person could see them even from a distance several day's travel away.

Joncour returns to Lavilledieu in time for High Mass. Baldabiou asks him if he saw the war, and Joncour answers that he did not see the war he was expecting. That night he makes love to...