Chapter 7, The Holdall Summary

Léonie waits half an hour and then treads softly upstairs with her cousin's suitcase and goes through Thérèse's things. The bag is full of books, mainly history and Jewish history, and a journal about Thérèse's childhood titled, "The Story of a Soul." Thérèse has used words such as soul, God, miracle, and prayer. Léonie thinks about how, in contrast, her own world is made up of the objects in the house. She ruminates that she does not have a soul, adding that it was Thérèse who stole it.

Chapter 7, The Holdall Analysis

The reader's interest in the relationship between the two characters is heightened by the way Léonie rifles through Thérèse's bag. The...