Segments 15, 16 Summary

The narrator offers an extended simile of a Lady from Savanna Khet whose husband was posted to Vinh Long. She remained behind to engage in an affair with a young assistant administrator in Savanna Khet. When finally she left he shot himself through the heart. The resultant scandal engulfed society much as the narrator and the lover's affair scandalizes society. The narrator's actions leave her entirely isolated. She cannot turn to her family for support, as they are entirely unsympathetic. Her lover offers what he can but it is insubstantial. Everyone else avoids her because of her behavior. After the young assistant administrator's suicide the scandal flared and then gradually diminished until, at last, the Lady began once again to entertain in society.

The narrator's mother defends the narrator's behavior at the boarding school and at other places. She laughs about her daughter's...