Summary
Mariamma returns to Saint Bridget's to confront Digby about her suspicions that he is her father. When she arrives, she sees the woman with leprosy she had noticed the previous time sorting rice, oblivious to the world around her. Digby, currently engaged in performing a surgery, explains his beliefs about surgery and the methods he uses, to Mariamma's growing frustration. When the surgery is complete, Digby and Mariamma retire to Digby's study, where Digby reveals that not only is he Mariamma's father, but Elsie is alive, and is the woman sorting rice.
In 1950, Digby attends a party for "Planter's Week," a gathering of local farmers and estate owners, including the Mylins. Through the window, Digby spots Elsie, now in her mid-twenties, and is struck by love for her. The Mylins, who brought Elsie as a guest, explain the tragedy of Ninan's passing and the subsequent dissolution of Elsie and Philipose's marriage. Now that they are both changed by tragedy, Digby and Elsie connect on a deep level; Elsie realizes that Digby purchased her portrait of Decency Kochamma years before. The next day, Elsie and Digby go on a walk through the mountains to an outcropping called the Chair of the Goddess, as Digby remembered the healing power of walks through nature when Cromwell nursed him after his accident. On the mountaintop, Elsie wanders to the ledge, considering whether or not to jump. To Digby's relief, she reaches back to him and the descend the mountain together, discussing the painful role of death in their lives.
Elsie stays on the estate and begins to work on sculptures. Digby, fully in love with Elsie, asks her to stay. They enjoy a few months of peace, healing, and happiness, until Big Ammachi's letter arrives that Baby Mol is dying and has asked to see Elsie. Though she is afraid of returning to Parambil, Elsie asks Digby to drop her off, promising she will return. However, the monsoon suddenly hits, disconnecting them for several months. Digby mourns Elsie, but accepts that she chose to stay at Parambil and he will never see her again. One day, he receives a cryptic message from Elsie asking him to collect her from a spot on the river several miles away from the estate. When Digby arrives, Elsie appears weak and sickly, and she falls asleep as Digby drives her home, promising to explain everything back at Gwendolyn Gardens.
Digby helps Elsie bathe, noticing patches of whitened skin on her limbs and her blistered feet. Digby realizes that Elsie has leprosy, which surfaced during her pregnancy. She explains that she gave birth to their daughter, Mariamma, but had to fake her own death because infants are incredibly vulnerable to the disease. Elsie begs Digby to bring her to Saint Bridget's and not risk his health, but Digby climbs into the tub with her, promising never to abandon her. The two then move to Saint Bridget's and keep the truth of Elsie's disappearance and disease a secret forever.
Mariamma hears Digby's story and is emotionally conflicted. Digby assures Mariamma that he and Elsie love her and have tried to connect with her in ways that keep Elsie's secret safe, such as Elsie pretending to be a beggar outside of Parambil and both of them collecting newspaper articles about Mariamma's medical career and stories written by Philipose. When she asks why Digby wasn't able to save her mother's hands and eyesight, Digby becomes indignant, explaining that throughout the entire course of her disease, Elsie would not accept treatment that interfered with her art, and that ÷she exacerbated her symptoms by sculpting for long hours. Mariamma and Digby debate whether or not to let Elsie, now blind, know that Mariamma is there. In a sacred routine, Elsie walks to the window of the study, placing her hands against the glass panes. Without thinking, Mariamma raises her hands to meet Elsie's in a moment of connection, separated by an invisible barrier.
Analysis
Digby meets Elsie at a party, where they connect over a portrait. This interaction parallels Digby's first meeting with Celeste, where they bonded over a painting of a woman on the wall. Though Digby and Celeste's affair ended tragically, Digby and Elsie's meeting is marked by a few key differences that demonstrate a deeper connection. First, the painting that Elsie and Digby study is Elsie's portrait of Decency Kochamma, whereas the painting Celeste showed Digby was an icon created by an unnamed artist. The painting is also in Digby's possession, as he purchased it to celebrate Elsie's art career even before they reconnected. Looking at the painting, Elsie feels that it was created by someone who no longer exists, marking how her life experiences changed her. By contrast, Celeste's chosen painting reminded her of her past, authentic self who was lost when she married Claude. Thus, Elsie and Digby are able to connect as fully developed people who share pain, guilt, and loss.
During the early days of Big Ammachi's marriage, the narrator describes Parambil as a natural, secluded paradise where Big Ammachi and Big Appachen grew together. Similarly, Part Ten describes Gwendolyn Gardens with poetic language and vivid imagery to evoke how natural beauty facilitates healing and falling in love. The name Gwendolyn Gardens, chosen to honor Digby's mother, also recalls how Elsie helped Digby reclaim his memories of his mother by binding their hands together and creating art, saving him from falling into despair and permanently altering the course of his life. Continuing the motif of joining hands, when Elsie tempts fate at the Goddess's Ledge, she regains her balance by blindly reaching her hand back to Digby.
In Part Ten, Elsie develops her own relationship with the symbolic meaning of water. To save Mariamma and find the freedom to pursue her art, Elsie realizes that she must fake her own death. She chooses to do this by entering the canal and floating downstream, a harrowing and dangerous process that symbolizes the death of Elsie's former life. When Elsie returns to Gwendolyn Gardens, she takes a bath, allowing the water to wash away the dirt on her skin. However, as Digby quickly realizes, Elsie has contracted leprosy, which the water cannot wash away. Despite Elsie's protests, Digby climbs into the tub with her, affirming that he is not afraid of the disease and will support and love her regardless of her illness. Digby's choice to enter the water is symbolic; as water represents death, Digby ties his life to Elsie's, accepting the possibility of her death without fear. Her suffering becomes his, even though he does not contract the disease.
At Gwendolyn Gardens, Elsie's art, when supported by Digby, is strikingly different from her art career supported by Philipose. Throughout their entire marriage, Philipose hindered Elsie's art while trying to earn her love. Digby, by contrast, does not try to earn Elsie's love and simply provides her the space to do her work. As an artist himself, Digby understands that creating art is essential for Elsie's survival, even though in the process of creating her work, she destroys her body. During her time with Digby, Elsie's art features faceless figures, as Elsie had to become "faceless" to save Mariamma and herself.
When Mariamma realizes that her understanding of herself and her heritage is false, she runs to the canal, stepping in the water. This act marks another of Mariamma's symbolic rebirths. She realizes that she has entered the "covenant of water," meaning that water is constantly changing and flowing, connecting all people across space and time, and that "no one stands alone." Just like Big Ammachi on the night of her death, Mariamma realizes that water provides infinite opportunities for rebirth, and that everyone who came before her contributed to her becoming the person she is. This revelation that "all is one" gives Mariamma the strength to accept the truth of her parents' identity.
The novel's final scene evokes the motif of hands in a powerful example of human connection. Barriers separated Mariamma from Elsie; the secrets of Elsie's survival, Mariamma's parentage, and Elsie's illness separated Mariamma from her mother. Mariamma presses her hands against the window, mirroring Elsie's through the pane of glass. This image demonstrates the power of connecting despite barriers, an act that provides healing. The ending is ambiguous, as Elsie does not indicate if she knows it is Mariamma, not Digby, meeting her hands.
