Chapter 4 Summary

After reading through the manuscripts, Felipe thinks he understands why Consuelo keeps Aura around: She is a kind of image of her past beauty. He puts down the papers and runs downstairs hoping to find Aura. She is in the kitchen beheading a young goat. She looks at Felipe with no emotion. He runs upstairs to Consuelo's room, meaning to finally confront her and free Aura. In her room, she is standing, staring at the wall performing some kind of strange ritual with her hands. He realizes, with horror, that she is going through the motions of skinning some invisible animal. He runs downstairs to find Aura perfectly mirroring the widow's actions on the goat.

Terrified, he escapes to his room and blocks the door with an armchair. He falls into a kind of trance and is assaulted by troubling nightmares in which...