Pages 217-237 Summary

The papers from Miss Lasqueti include a package to be sent to Emily, which Michael opens, confessing that writers have no shame, and anyway, he has not seen Emily for many years. He knows she married a man named Desmond. Inside the package, he finds the story Emily had asked about, concerning an event in Miss Lasqueti's youth that helped her to save herself. She writes that in her twenties, she went to Italy to study the language. There, she works as a translator for a wealthy American couple who own an art institute. They have a seven year-old boy who waves at her each day when she arrives by bicycle, but she also sees someone behind a curtain in an upstairs window, watching her. This turns out to be the father, Horace Johnson. The villa is full of tapestries and...