The Painted Veil

Back at the convent, Kitty’s pregnancy fascinates the nuns. The mother superior asserts that Walter is delighted; however, Kitty privately feels that his vanity will prevent him from forgiving her.

As Kitty spends more time in the convent, she becomes assured of the nuns’ kindness but also of the aloof, impersonal nature of their love, which does not strike her as natural or humane.

Walter does not come home for dinner that night, leaving Kitty to her own thoughts. She regards her affair with Townsend as an embarrassing blunder and finds that she is unable to contemplate the future after the child is born. She is no longer afraid of Walter, only thinking that “it was a pity that with his great qualities, his unselfishness and honor, his intelligence and sensibility, he should be so unlovable” (207).

Waddington appears at the house to tell Kitty that Walter has contracted cholera. He is pessimistic about Walter’s chances of survival. Chair-bearers convey him and Kitty to Walter’s location.

Kitty finds Walter in a deathly state from cholera. Waddington affirms that nothing more can be done for him, and Colonel Yü, Walter’s companion, has a face full of tears. Kitty asks for a moment alone with Walter and apologizes for the wrongs she has committed against him before asking for his forgiveness. Although he moves his lips, he cannot form a sentence and becomes delirious. She calls the men back into the room, and Waddington confirms that Walter is dead.

Kitty finds comfort in the landscape surrounding the bungalow, and Waddington says that he will make the funeral arrangements.

Walter is buried within three hours in a Chinese coffin. The nuns send over a cross of prim dahlias, and Waddington reads an English service. Kitty feels “a dreadful pang at her heart” as she contemplates the coffin (223).

Kitty and Waddington talk about the potential of an afterlife. Waddington says that even if the afterlife is a falsehood, the nuns’ way of life will have been a beautiful counterforce against the world’s and humanity’s chaos. Kitty then asks Waddington to explain the Tao to her, and he begins a list of contradictions, stating that it is “the way and the waygoer […] a square without angles, a sound which ears cannot hear, and an image without form” (227). In summary, the Tao consists of the idea that each element contains a measure of its opposite. Waddington then reveals that Walter might have died from his experiments and was thus a martyr to the cause. Kitty maintains that Walter died from a broken heart.

Kitty returns to the convent, and the mother superior expresses her gratitude and puts her to work.

After Kitty has been at the convent for a week, the mother superior surprises Kitty by announcing that she has arranged for her to return to her mother in England. Kitty protests that she wishes to stay at the convent and seeks to elicit some human compassion for her woes, but the nuns insist that she go, as her duty ought to be towards her child. Colonel Yü will accompany her.

On her journey back to Hong Kong, Kitty takes in the landscape and finds that the previous weeks’ events seem distant, “like a story that she was reading” (240).

Although Colonel Yü sobs at her husband’s death, Kitty, who never loved Walter, experiences a sense of freedom. She realizes that they would never have been happy together and that parting would have been equally painful. She would like to amble about Hong Kong but knows she must get on with the business of selling the house and furniture.

As the boat docks in Hong Kong, Kitty is surprised by the sight of Townsend’s wife, Dorothy. Dorothy comes onto the boat with the express purpose of inviting Kitty to stay with them at their house. Kitty, protesting that she will stay at the Hong Kong Hotel, is confused; however, Dorothy shows remorse at having misjudged Kitty as “fast” and, following a telegram from Waddington about her heroism, wishes to make amends (245). Kitty feels uncomfortable with Dorothy’s outpouring of emotion and agrees to take up her offer.

Kitty awaits Townsend’s arrival, knowing that he must have hoped he would never set eyes on her again after their last embarrassing meeting. He puts on a performance of sorriness when he greets her, calling Walter “a thundering good chap” (247).

Townsend is an amiable host, and Kitty goes from thinking him grotesque, fat, and aged to slim and youthful. He insists that in a few days’ time, he and Kitty will have a “business talk” (250), and he will arrange a pension for her and an independent living.

Kitty finds that she becomes a social success with many high-born ladies who come to take tea with her. Waddington’s letters have been spreading the news of her reputation. She wishes that he would be around to laugh at it with her.

Townsend finds Kitty alone while his wife is out. Kitty says that she despises him and that he owes his wife loyalty. He callously says that what Dorothy doesn’t know cannot hurt her. Kitty then tells him that he sent her to a near certain death in Meitan-fu and begins to cry. She asserts that Walter died because of their affair and that Walter was worth 10 of Townsend. She runs to her room and Townsend follows her, drawing down the shutters. He takes her in his arms, and while she struggles to get away from him, she finds the embrace “strangely comforting” (258). He begins to kiss her, and she finds it impossible to resist going to bed with him.

Townsend leaves her bedroom, and Kitty is bitterly disappointed with herself. She thought that she had returned from Hong Kong as “a woman who possessed herself” and was able to resist the demands of the flesh (261). Now she judges herself a “slut” and a traitor to Dorothy (261).

Kitty procures a passage to England in two days’ time and leaves Dorothy’s house to sort her affairs out. Townsend finds Kitty in her former home, having learned about her journey. She tells him that she feels “absolutely degraded” as a result of their assignation and that she disowns that low part of herself (265). Townsend then says that Dorothy has told him that Kitty is pregnant. Although Kitty protests that the child is Walter’s, Townsend thinks that the child is more likely his. Kitty fears that she will never be able to escape Townsend and that “his power over her would reach out and he would still, obscurely but definitely, influence every day of her life” (268).

While she is on the boat, Kitty receives several letters from her family. She learns that her sister already has one little boy and is pregnant with her second child. Her father and sister inform her that her mother is unwell. Then she receives a telegram from her father stating that her mother is dead.

Back in England, Kitty reunites with her father and Doris. She sees her mother’s corpse decked out in a ceremonial manner, like a Roman empress. Her father is stoic, but Doris bursts into tears.

Kitty’s father tells her that he has received the post of chief justice in the Bahamas. He imagines that he will sell the family’s present house and that Kitty will get an apartment for her and the baby. Kitty exclaims that London means nothing to her anymore and that she would like to come to the Bahamas with him. However, she says that as he was so miserable with his wife, he must decide if Kitty can accompany him.

Father and daughter plan to sail off together and be kind to one another. She tells him that she wants to bring up her daughter to be strong and to stand on her own two feet rather than depend on any man for money. As she embarks on a new future, she decides, “[T]he past was finished; let the dead bury their dead” (283). She determines to follow the nuns’ example in pursuing the path to peace.