A Family's Secrets and Tragedies in Mercè Rodoreda's Novel

XIX (Eladi Farriols' Body)

L'Armanda puts roses in his belly. Eladi's body, which is dead, was in the library. Nobody knew exactly what time Eladi died. Jesus spoke of Masdeu, and l'Armanda's son, who loved Eladi more. In l'Armanda, he had gotten to know about that shaver, Eladi's death. L'Armanda was preparing something to eat, and Masdeu remained alone with the dead, but after a while, Sofia went there. Upon entering, l'Armanda was carrying a tray of food, and Sofia noticed that l'Armanda had put flowers because they were made of paper.

XX (Sofia)

At the funeral, Sofia showed l'Armanda a bottle of Eladi's medicine. Sofia played at getting a manicure, and Silvia entered and told Sofia that Marcellus watched and laughed. When Sofia was alone, she noticed a stain on her foot and tried to remove it but could not.

XXI (Dreams)

Teresa Valldaura is asleep, but she turns blue; it was blue. She was pricked with a needle, and the blood was also blue. Then they ask where he was because he hated the blue; it reminded him of anguish. Masdeu was with a rifle, and they threw themselves to the ground. The soldier (Masdeu) unbuttoned her blouse. There was a storm of apples, and one gets inside her belly. An old man picked up the apple and threw it at her, and she was covered with diamonds. A voice calls her, and she spits, but it does not come out. Teresa wakes up and wonders where she is. She was with l'Armanda and tells her the dream. L'Armanda tells her about a dream of an angel who takes her by the waist and rises up to the moon, and the angel went back and told her that.

Chapter XVI (Farewell, Maria)

Maria is dead, and people came to the Farriols' house to give their condolences. Eladi was severely affected, but people thought the daughter was not his, that she was adopted. Sofia accepted the condolences like the mother of the child. L'Armanda also wept tears. She remembered all those times she thought she had groomed her and the very special character of Maria, who had never loved anyone. She recalled a long sentence Maria said: "Having slept with my dad for a season does not give you the right to treat me like a maid." That greatly affected l'Armanda. When there were no visits to the house, Sofia went to see what her mother was doing. She was fast asleep and climbed the stairs to her room. She went to the drawer and took out some letters from the desk, tied with a knot. They were letters from her youth, and she ripped them all. Later, she thought she had ripped them because, after many years of saving them, she even thought of remaking them, but eventually, she left them as they were in the trash.

Chapter XVII (The Slab)

Eladi lived with great effort. He entered into a feverish passion for books. The maids could not clean the library, and therefore, it had a major dust and a bad smell. One day he found a notebook of Valldaura's. Some said they had estimated from these letters to Teresa, but he was not the man they needed; his heart had always been, at least in part, forbidden. Even when he made love with Teresa, he thought of Barbara. The book also said that he believed he had never loved Sofia, other than how parents love their children; he lacked the parental spirit. He said the sweet remembrance of Barbara was not comparable to any other record. One day, Eladi left home and headed to Mr. Jeremiah's store for breakfast, to bring a slab of stone under the tree where Maria died.

Eladi found a letter in the hall where the attorney told him that Ramon Rivera no longer lived in the house, and the sister who worked there did not say where. Eladi was very happy with the slab and spent hours and hours in front of it. The death of his daughter had changed him forever, and the only record of love he had was that of Pilar.

Chapter XVIII (Other Maids)

The house had new maids. L'Armanda's destination was not to do as well as those before. Every Saturday, they cleared Teresa's room.

L'Armanda wondered who Ramon must have been with, who never gave signs of life. When the masters disappeared from the house, the girls stripped naked in the sun with wet skin, made fun, and laughed. They were young girls with beautiful bodies. Anna, one of the girls, discovered that Mr. Eladi pretended to be Senan, touched the bell to deceive them, and snuck through the trees to the cottage of the wash house. From here, he saw all the girls naked. Anna told the girls, and they ran like crazy again and again to the window so that the mister would notice that they had caught him.