Summary

Part One, Chapter V: The Saale begins in October of 1889. Sarita Sanford is on a ship travelling from England to America. She remembers going on a trip into the countryside as a school girl and seeing a bull mating with a cow. For weeks she could not get the bull out of her mind and now she thinks of it again as she realizes she cannot marry Charles Brock-Innes.

Sarita is supposed to marry Brock-Innes as a way of elevating the status of her wealthy family and earn them an English peerage. Sarita remembers growing up poor and the humiliation of being white in Argentina, but having no money. She likes Brock-Innes well enough, but she had seen him coming out of a linen closet with her father’s valet.

Sarita’s maid, Paz, approaches her with a parasol. Paz enjoys reminding...