A Fall of Marigolds

As Clara waits for Ethan to return to the hotel, she realizes that if she “was truly to let go of Edward, [she] needed to do so in as complete a way as [she] could” (251). She is frightened of the prospect, but it is not “the same dread” (251) she felt when preparing to leave the island earlier that day. Ethan tells Clara that she does not need to go to Scotland to break the hold the island has over her, but Clara disagrees. Ethan is shocked when Clara asks to drive by the building where Edward and the others died. The panic overtakes her again when they get close to the building, but she nonetheless asks the driver to stop and goes to stand on the sidewalk where the bodies had lain. Clara is surprised that she no longer feels “despair” but only “regret” (255). She and Ethan next drive to the main office of The New York Times to find Edward’s obituary. Clara feels better than she has in months, and she and Ethan hold hands on the way to the newspaper. Clara is shocked to discover, from the obituary, that Edward had been engaged to be married.