Summary

In Chapter XXVII, Winifred arrives for the Christmas Eve dinner in the green dress, which is ugly and ill-fitting. She describes the food and the various inhumane methods used to prepare it. A signet was separated from its parents at two months old and deliberately overfed to make it fatter. A force fed ortolan was drowned in brandy, and the oysters were alive. Winifred notes that the sugar in the dessert was harvested by slaves in British colonies. During the course of dinner, Winifred becomes drunk. After dinner, she wanders the house alone in a drunken state and has visions of times from the house’s past, such as seeing plague doctors. She enters the servants’ hall and finds them telling ghost stories. She tells one of her own, but she is ignored and told by a butler, “We don’t...