Summary

Chapter 4 begins with Noemí waking the following morning and setting off to explore the house. In the library, she observed mold growing on a book, saw old magazines on the subject of eugenics, and noticed an image of a serpent biting its tail on a rug. In an adjoining room, she found a rifle cabinet along with more eugenics journals.

Noemí encountered three servants in the kitchen and attempted to introduce herself to them, but they did not seem to understand why she was speaking to them. Exiting the house, she met Francis, who showed her the cemetery, which Noemí found “a picture of melancholy” (40). She noticed multiple headstones from 1888. Francis informed her that after Howard had brought English workers and equipment to reopen the local mine, which had previously been operated by Spaniards before Mexican independence, an epidemic had killed most of...