Chapter Seven Summary and Analysis

One day Gerald receives an invitation from Countess Mavrodaki who lives on the island. She lives a very solitary life but knows Theo who is her doctor. The invitation indicates that she knows of Gerald's love of nature and of his desire to have specimens of his own, and that she has a barn owl she'd like to give him. The owl has a broken wing and Gerald eagerly accepts the invitation. He dresses carefully but Sally dumps him off in a muddy ditch so that he arrives with mud on his clothes. The Countess welcomes him anyway and feeds him a great deal of food before presenting him with the owl. She tells him that she hopes he'll come for another visit someday and he pledges that if he does so, he'll fast for three days so that...