Summary

In Chapter 31, Mamah goes to the Café des Westens. When she sees no table available, she turns to leave. A waiter appears and escorts her to an empty chair. The four men stand when she sits down and the women nod. The man next to her asks if she would like wine. She accepts. She is unsure what the costumes of the performers are supposed to portray. The woman on stage looks familiar to Mamah. The man next to her points to the woman and says that she is his wife and a poet. The intimacy of the performance so clearly directed at her husband makes Mamah want to leave the room. She makes her way through the crowd and out onto the sidewalk.

A woman appears beside her. It is the woman who helped her at the same café when...