Bessie has finished John Stuart Mill’s autobiography. She comments further on it and on his life. She asks Barbara what she thinks of ‘the Beecher story’ [Henry Ward Beecher accused of adultery] and says she thinks it reveals a ‘low gossipping state of society’ in New York. She is about to take the children to the ‘Chateau’. She has been to Pontigay with Marie where they saw a torchlight procession with hymns and chants. She replies to a question from Barbara about ‘Professor Tyndal’s address’.