Chapters 26-28 Summary

Hervé Joncour tells his wife, Hélène, that he must travel to Nimes for the day on business. In Nimes, he seeks out Madame Blanche. When he is finally allowed to see her, she is dressed in a white kimono with blue flowers around her fingers as jewelry. He asks her to read the note he brought back from Japan: "Come back, or I shall die." Madame Blanche tells him to forget it. He thinks she means not to pay her, but she says that he should forget the woman.

Baldabiou observes that men sometimes travel from as far away as Paris to visit Madame Blanche, who would give them the blue flowers from her fingers to wear in their buttonholes.

Chapters 26-28 Analysis

Madame Blanche is an expatriated Japanese woman with a mysterious past. She has inside knowledge of...