Summary

“Day and night, the churches marked the departure of each perished congregant, every peal thickening the blood of the city” (428). Mary walks throughout the house opening windows in a “sudden rage,” Rivka closing them behind her and crying, “plague seeds float in the air!” (428). Mary describes the house as a “cage,” but for Ester “it was the world outside that had turned vertiginous … the pestilence, the bells, the rabbi, John. Unbearable, sickening thoughts” (429).

Earlier that morning, Ester had attempted “to trace a logical argument” on love: “love causes pain … because it depends on another. Because it is not self-complete and therefore cannot be contained within one spirit” (429). She had been unable to progress further, as though the part of her who knew “how to inscribe clear lines of argument on the lurching world had fallen mute” (429). Ester cannot recall why she had treasured her...