- Chapter 23 brings us back to Roland Mitchell and Maud Bailey, who are still wandering around Brittany together.
- As Roland and Maud walk along a shoreline one day, they hear two voices being carried along the wind. It doesn't take them long to realize that the voices belong to James Blackadder and Leonora Stern, and our courageous heroes hightail it out of there, lickety split,
- As they return to their hotel, Roland and Maud spot a black Mercedes leaving the parking lot. Maud recognizes it as Mortimer Cropper's car, but she can't tell if he has recognized her.
- Maud and Roland decide to pack their bags and head back to England right away, hoping to put off the inevitable confrontations with Cropper, Leonora, and Blackadder for a little while longer.
- The narrator breaks in to tell us what Roland and Maud have been up to during their three-week stay in Brittany. After reading Sabine de Kercoz's journal, the two of them have simply been wandering around together, as if they were on holiday.
- The romantic tension has definitely been building between Maud and Roland, too, but they haven't yet done anything about it.
- We're whisked back to James Blackadder and Leonora Stern, who are heading toward the hotel where Roland and Maud (and Mortimer Cropper) are staying.
- As Leonora tries to drive into the parking lot, Mortimer Cropper's Mercedes blocks her way. Soon, the hotheaded Americans get into a bit of an altercation, and Cropper's Mercedes emerges with a very bent fender.
- After Leonora and Cropper insult each other, the three scholars decide to have supper together in the hotel. As they do, they discuss their car insurance—and the Ash-LaMotte correspondence, natch—while Cropper devours a heaping plate of sea creatures.
- As they head up to their respective rooms later that night, Leonora invites Blackadder to spend the night with her. He refuses politely, and she kisses him goodnight.
- The next day, as they drive to a nearby chapel that houses some art they'd like to see, Leonora and Blackadder are overtaken by Mortimer Cropper's Mercedes, which is now croaking and wheezing horribly—and hilariously—"like a beast in pain" (23.119).
- Realizing that neither they nor Cropper are ever going to overtake Roland and Maud, Leonora and James decide to chill out and have a picnic together instead.