Chapter 11, The Ivory Ring Summary

Thérèse remembers details about her first months as an infant, such as Rose Taillé caring for her in the farmhouse. Thérèse plays in the mud and on the linoleum floors, curling up next to Rose at night. The baby's first word is "Rose," and she stays with the wet nurse until she is just older than one and a half. When Antoinette comes to get Thérèse, the infant rejects her biological mother because she is a stranger. Louis has followed Antoinette into Rose's kitchen, and Thérèse lets Louis pick her up. Antoinette drops money onto the table and walks with Louis and the infant back toward the Martin house, where Thérèse screams for the entire evening...