Book Four: Chapter 18, Battle Royal Summary

Miss Donleavy instructs them to sit at a distance from each other with hands in plain view at the table, and Mary is drawn through a series of memories from her classes with this tutor. The gun is pointed at Mary, where Donleavy knows it will achieve maximum effect from Holmes. Somehow, she still believes that Mary and Holmes were in a state of emotional alienation, and the thought gives Mary brief hope. Holmes draws her attention back to him, and laughs, letting Mary know that she was only playing with her, and the ruse is up. She confesses to them both that her time is limited. She is dying and what once was a plan she had intended to spring much later had become a plan of necessity in the time she has remaining...