Summary

Ester worries that her new look makes her look like her father. She dresses up even though Bernard is away visiting his mother. She picks up her Mills and Boons romantic novel and pours some drops of camphor on Bernard's pillow, so she could embrace the scent of him while he was away. Camphor is used "as a moth repellent and as an aphrodisiac" (146). She tries to write a romance novel in the past, but it is never finished. She keeps it in a drawer and has never shown Bernard. The new girl that they hired a year ago mesmerizes Ester with her youth. Ester expects that a guest will arrive at noon. He is young and walks over to the new girl before he is greeted by Ester. Ester places pieces of cold meats in "the boy's" mouth when he refuses the plate...