- The narrator fills us in on the rapid chain of events that have taken place in the meantime.
- When Frank gets home, he gets a telephone call telling him that Amédée has been carried off the field after having a seizure, and is waiting to have surgery.
- Once he leaves, Marie calls Alexandra, who already knows about Emil's friend. Emil stayed with Amédée until his surgery, to treat his appendicitis. The doctors are afraid the surgery has come too late to help him.
- The story begins just as Marie hangs up the phone after talking with Alexandra. She feels extra bad for Amédée because she now knows that Emil was with him—it could have easily been Emil who got sick, and not the other way around.
- As she sits and thinks, she plans to tell Alexandra about everything once Emil has left.
- She's lonely, so she goes out to walk in the orchard. She crosses the fence that separates her property from the Bergsons' and starts out on the path to Alexandra's house. She feels hurt that Emil didn't come to tell her about his friend.
- As she walks the path, she imagines the years to come, which lay out before her like the endless fields of wheat. Just as the seasons change, there is the same yearning to live life to the fullest, until that yearning gives up and all that is left is a "dead woman" (4.5.5).
- She sits and waits near the path. From her perspective, Emil might as well be gone already. One thing is clear, once he really is gone, her life will get easier. She'll no longer feel like she's ruining his life. She's not concerned for herself—her fate is sealed. What's most important to her is that she doesn't "drag down" anyone else (4.5.7).
- Marie gets up and crosses the pasture, having hoped that Emil might come and find her. Soon, she arrives at the pond where Emil shot the ducks.
- As she looks at the pond reflecting the moon, she realizes that there is the "dirty way out of life," in which desires are fulfilled at the expense of everything else (4.5.8). But she wants to live, not "die," she wants to live with a perfect dream dream.
- In the morning, Alexandra finds Emil in the sitting room. She says she didn't want to wake him last night to give him the news. Amédée is dead.