Rawson-Clew makes a visit to a specific house in the nearby village every evening, and Julia takes a regular evening walk. They start walking the distance to the village together every day, as they both like having another English person to converse with, and- after their initial awkwardness- enjoy each other's company. In all their conversations, R-C never tells Julia why he's in Holland, but Julia is an extremely observant person and figures it out on her own. The house which R-C goes to is owned by a famous German chemist who is known to have developed a new type of explosive. Julia deduces that Rawson-Clew is attempting to obtain this explosive for the British government, but doesn't ask him about it since he's never brought it up. They talk about every other topic under the sun, however, and form a friendship which is founded on intellectual debate and lively interest in each others' opinions.
Julia and Rawson-Clew have their holiday together, enjoying the remote landscape and each others' company. Over the course of the day, R-C reveals to Julia- still without revealing what his mission was- that he has failed, and will soon be leaving. Julia, mindful of her own failure, silently sympathizes with his discouragement. Engrossed in their conversation, they don't notice that the time has flown, and they are late starting back. Worse, a deep fog is rolling in off the water, and soon the two of them can't see where they're going. Realizing that they're going around in circles, Julia and R-C are forced to stop and wait for the fog to lift, which doesn't happen until early the next morning. They start back to the village, aware that this is going to end badly.
In the meantime, quite the scene is occurring. Denah, who has brought her mother along, has made things sound as bad as she possibly could in an effort to discredit Julia, whom she regards as a rival. Mijnheer and Mevrouw are scandalized that she spent an entire day- and worse, night- with an unknown man (Julia stubbornly refuses to identify him). They dismiss her from her position for her actions, much to Denah's satisfaction. While she is packing, Julia receives the letter from Rawson-Clew containing his proposal. Although accepting is unthinkable, she is nonetheless glad that he made it, as it shows he is an honourable gentleman. She writes back to him, thanking him for the offer but turning him down, and tells him not to worry about her; she can take care of herself.
Right before leaving, Julia receives another proposal of marriage, this time from Joost. He believes her account of what happened, and tells her that he loves her. Julia is dismayed: she likes and admires Joost, but can never love him, and is distraught to think that she has inadvertently caused him pain. In an attempt to lessen his regard for her, she confesses to him the reason she came to Holland: to take one of his blue daffodil bulbs because she needed money. Rather than focus on that, though, Joost says that she must have been in great need, and yet in the end could not bring herself to do a wrong thing. Despite his hurt at her refusal to marry him, as she is leaving by carriage Joost thrusts a package into Julia's hands. When she opens it, she finds one of the daffodil bulbs. After leaving, Julia posts her letter to Rawson-Clew who, upon receiving her refusal sets out for the Van Heigens', determined to convince Julia that there is no other option. He is shocked to discover that she has already gone, and attempts to find out what her plans were. Unfortunately for him, Julia did not confide in anyone, and even if she had, when he tells Mijnheer and Mevrouw Van Heigen that he was the man whom Julia was with, they aren't inclined to tell him anything. Rawson-Clew leaves in frustration and soon returns to England, planning to, once there, find out from the Pendletons where Julia is, and if she's alright.