Chapter 19 - Chapter 23
Chapter 19: December 1956
Elizabeth allows Madeline to do as she wishes, touching, tasting, sniffing, and licking whatever she encounters around the house to satisfy her curiosity. Harriet Sloane thinks this is dangerous, but cannot deny that there is a remarkable bond between Elizabeth and Madeline, who seem more like friends and equals than parent and child. Elizabeth reads aloud to Madeline and Six-Thirty from the works of Charles Darwin and Robert Louis Stevenson, saying they enjoy difficult books and dislike the idea of abridged versions or simpler texts.
A year after Madeline’s birth, Dr. Mason stops by early one morning to try to persuade Elizabeth to rejoin the rowing eight. He waves aside her objections that she does not have enough time or experience, saying that no one is busy at 4:30 a.m. and that she has been trained to row by the great Calvin Evans himself. Getting back in a boat, he tells her, will make her feel so much better. He is right about this. Elizabeth loves being back out on the water again, but the rest of the crew—all of whom are male—do not share Dr. Mason’s enthusiasm for her participation.
Chapter 20: Life Story
Although Madeline is not yet four years old, she is large for her age and intellectually precocious, so Elizabeth decides that it is time for her to start school and meet other children. Finding herself in financial difficulties, Elizabeth also needs to get a job, so she swallows her pride and returns to the Hastings Research Institute, where Dr. Donatti is surprisingly pleased to see her. Although Donatti still dislikes Elizabeth and has enjoyed being free of her and Calvin, the wealthy donor with an interest in abiogenesis has been asking about her results (or his results, since he is under the impression that E. Zott is a man). Donatti is therefore in need of Elizabeth’s scientific abilities, as no one else at Hastings understands the topic quite like she does.
Chapter 21: E.Z.
When Elizabeth goes to work at the Hastings Research Institute, she assumes she will be returning to her old job. However, Dr. Donatti has downgraded her to the post of laboratory technician, assisting other scientists with their work. He says that the Institute will pay for her further education, but he is not talking about a Ph.D.: he wants Elizabeth to take a stenography course in her spare time.
Elizabeth is enraged by this treatment and goes into the bathroom to calm down. She hears the sound of banging from the next stall and asks if the occupant is alright. The occupant is Miss Trask, the personnel assistant who always detested Elizabeth and helped Dr. Donatti to fire her. The two women argue, and Miss Frask asks Elizabeth why she never managed to obtain a Ph.D. Elizabeth says that she was kicked out of the doctoral program after being sexually violated by her supervisor. She asks Miss Frask why she failed to become a psychologist, and her answer is the same.
Chapter 22: The Present
A few weeks later, Elizabeth asks Miss Frask for information about the wealthy donor who wants to fund research on abiogenesis. Miss Frask can find nothing, saying that rich people are secretive. She suggests they have lunch next week, by which time she will have been able to go through the files. However, when they meet, Miss Frask has no more information and says that she has been fired for gaining weight. Elizabeth points out that this is illegal, but Miss Frask is resigned to her fate. However, she gives Elizabeth a...
(This entire section contains 899 words.)
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parting gift to atone for her unkindness in the past. This present consists of eight boxes containing all of Calvin’s work.
Chapter 23: KCTV Studios
When Dr. Donatti publishes an article in Science Journal based on Elizabeth’s ground-breaking research, she marches into his office, calls him a liar and a cheat, and resigns from her job at the Hastings Research Institute. When she returns home, Harriet tells her that Walter Pine, the television producer she visited recently to discuss the problem of his daughter Amanda eating Madeline’s lunch every day, has called three times. There is also a note from Harriet’s teacher, Mrs. Mudford, complaining that Madeline has been requesting books by Vladimir Nabokov from the school library.
Elizabeth has been going through the boxes Miss Frask gave to her. They contain not only Calvin’s work but also his private correspondence. This includes a series of letters from a man named Wakely, who was studying at Harvard Divinity School at the same time Calvin was at Cambridge. Wakely was from the town of Commons and had recommended the weather and the rowing there. His correspondence with Calvin ended abruptly when Calvin wrote that he hated his father and wished he was dead. This puzzles Elizabeth, since, as far as she knows, Calvin’s father has been dead since Calvin was five years old.
Elizabeth and Madeline’s dinner that evening is interrupted by another telephone call from Walter Pine, who is calling to offer her a contract as the presenter of a new cooking show to fill a vacant afternoon slot at the KCTV station. Elizabeth dislikes the idea but thinks of the bills she has to pay and decides that she has little choice but to accept such a well-paid job.
