Chapter 4 Summary

After the funeral, Anna is left profoundly empty and guilty about not loving Edward enough for him to stay home, and only in January 1900, allows Lady Caroline Burke to coax her to Rome. As she reads, Isabel reflects on women being conditioned to blame themselves. Amal's musing about the Cairo of her childhood is interrupted by Isabel's announcement her mother is dying. Amal remembers her father's stories about Jasmine's birth in Paris -- and now that baby is dying? Jasmine, who never got over the loss of a son and never allowed her daughter to relax around her, lives in an Alzheimer's home. Amal wants to advise Isabel, "What's done is done."

A Roman opera moves Anna to a delirium of grief but also suggests a door by which she can return to society. Amal recalls her own Victorian novel-like years, living with...