After she leaves the room, Benjamin smiles and rubs his hands together and Mrs. Stirling asks him if he thinks it can be true, about Doctor Redfern being Barney Snaith's father. Ben says that he's sure it is, and he always suspected that Doss- Valancy- had hidden depths. It's clear to him that Amelia (Valancy's mother) kept her down too much and repressed her personality; when left to her own devices, she managed to land a multi-millionaire. Amelia sputters that people said that Barney was a criminal and Benjamin says piously that he's surprised that she paid attention to such malicious gossip. He says that Barney's obviously just an eccentric writer, and that he heard a lecturer say that John Foster had put Canada on the literary map. He advises Amelia to be sympathetic and understanding with Valancy, and that he will track down Barney and talk to him man-to-man.
"Then she thought of him inescapably. She ached for him. She wanted his arms around her--his face against hers--his whispers in her ear. She recalled all his friendly looks and quips and jests--his little compliments--his caresses. She counted them all over as a woman might count her jewels--not one did she miss from the first day they had met. These memories were all she could have now. She shut her eyes and prayed.
"Let me remember every one, God! Let me never forget one of them!"
Then Valancy tortures herself by thinking about Ethel Traverse, beautiful, rich and cultured, the type of woman Barney should be married to, and probably will be once he obtains a divorce. The type of woman he had loved. She then wonders what Barney is doing and thinking now... if he is furiously angry and hates her, or if he feels any pity for her situation. Unable to sleep, she paces her small room in anguish, finally moaning to herself, "Oh, why can't I die?" and meaning it literally.