Summary

The protagonist recalls a story by famous French writer Honoré de Balzac called “Colonel Chabert.” She once wrote an English translation of the story, which tells of a fictional colonel who is presumed dead in war, so his wife remarries. When he returns home, he finds that the legalities of the situation have erased his marriage to his wife. The protagonist thinks about the stories implications of the conflict between legal strictures and laws of internal feeling and morality.

Later, as the protagonist eats breakfast with Mark and Isabella, Isabella says that she wishes to return home to London with Christopher’s body. Isabella says that the protagonist will, of course, receive money from Christopher’s savings, since she is his wife. The protagonist does not know how to respond, for she feels she cannot morally accept the money, and yet if she tells...