Summary

Chapter 44 – Immediately upon his return to the White Lion, Charles goes to see Ernestina. Ernestina is embroidering for Charles, and she has missed him very much. He brings her a coral and gold brooch. Charles then reaffirms his love for Ernestina, and confesses to her what has happened.

John Fowles then relates, in the first of three alternate endings, that Sarah and Charles marry and have seven children. Charles lives on a decade after Ernestina, and misses her. Sarah’s fate is unknown. Sam and Mary marry; Dr. Grogan and Mrs. Tranter live into their nineties, and Mrs. Poulteney does not go to Heaven.

Chapter 45 – Fowles reveals the preceding chapters could possibly be Charles’s imagination of what Charles wanted to happen.. Charles was torn apart over the address he had been sent. Stopping over in Exeter, Charles goes to the Endicott Hotel.

Chapter 46 – Charles...