Part 1, Chapter 12 Summary

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Though the rest of the household leaves to search for the missing twins, Emily stays behind in the empty mansion. She considers calling the local constable but does not want to speak to his garrulous wife and figures by the time a search party is gathered, the boys will have returned. Instead, she thinks about her wayward sister Hermione, and Hermione’s daughter Lola. When Emily had gone to Lola after dinner to assess her injuries, a wave of resentment had emanated from the girl, causing Emily to fuss over her even more in an attempt to hide it. While the injuries were real, Emily was once again in the position of relinquishing the spotlight to another, just as all the attention used to go to Hermione. When Briony wanted to open the envelope, Emily was sharp with her, not wanting her daughter to make a dramatic production out of the reading. Emily realizes this is not a flattering realization. Emily remembers that when she was eleven and ran into a glass window, cutting her hand badly enough that blood sprayed profusely, it was nine-year-old Hermione who threw the histrionics and got all the cosseting and petting as one medical uncle attended to her wound.

Lola, too, had a penchant for upstaging everyone around her. When the letter had been read, Lola drew attention to herself by storming out of the room and into the darkness alone. Emily is certain that once the boys have been found, the searchers will then have to find Lola, waiting outside in the dark until she can make a dramatic re-entrance to the household. She is also certain it was Lola who undermined Briony’s play, as evidenced by the ripped poster and the playwright living in exile all afternoon. “How like Hermione Lola was, to remain guiltless while others destroyed themselves at her prompting.”

Now Emily waits for the nightly phone call from her husband. She knows he works late; she also knows he does not sleep at his club as he tells her—and he knows she knows. The lies are consistent, but so are the phone calls. Emily takes great satisfaction in her house and the grounds and especially her children, and she is content to hear the sound of her husband’s voice regularly. This kind of prolonged and complicated attention is enough to sustain her, and she has convinced herself that her husband’s elaborate deceit is actually a tribute to their strong marriage. Though she had been a wronged child and was now a wronged wife, Emily is not as unhappy as one might expect. She does want to know or be told the unpleasant or tedious things in life.

As she sits in the stillness of the parlor, Emily contemplates her life. Soon Briony will be gone and she will be left alone and lonely. Jack will come back to her out of old age and weariness, and no explanations will be made. That thought causes Emily to contemplate Robbie, Jack’s “project.” At dinner, the boy had a “manic and glazed” look, and she thinks maybe he is smoking reefers as so many college students reportedly are doing these days. She opposes Jack’s helping the boy (she calls it “meddling”), seeing it as both unfair to her children and giving the boy false hopes for his future. Jack knows good things have already come to the boy because of his patronage. At dinner, Briony had been particularly rude to Robbie, something Emily finds inexcusable.

Paul, on the other hand, is suitable in every way according to Emily. While he is not especially...

(This entire section contains 834 words.)

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handsome, he is quite rich and well educated. His chemistry degree is not particularly glamorous, especially to Cecilia, but he has invented a way to create chocolate without using cocoa and soon his company will make a fortune by undercutting the competition. He just may be suitable, thinks Emily. These meandering thoughts, judgments, and evaluations consume her for about thirty minutes. She notices the wind has picked up, and then the phone rings. It is Jack making his nightly call, though it is a bit later than usual.

The Tallises chat about ordinary things, and Emily tells him about Robbie’s wild look at dinner and the twins running away from the house. Jack is prepared to call the police when Leon comes through the door, followed by Cecilia looking bewildered. Briony enters next, her arms around her pale and shaken cousin Lola. Emily can see from the girl’s face that the worst has happened. Leon takes the phone and tells his father he must come home immediately, preferably tonight. He also tells his father to contact the police and quietly continues his conversation into the phone. Emily wants to hear what happened, but Leon is insistent that she go into the other room first. Emily knows he is trying to protect her and wants her to be sitting down when he explains what has happened.

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