Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: Part 3, Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

The narrator says he would've had a grand time during Luo's month-long absence if Luo hadn't asked the narrator to guard the Little Seamstress. Luo explains that a number of young men on the mountain admire her, and will surely flock to her side in his absence. He tasks the narrator with spending as much time with the Little Seamstress as possible. The narrator is flattered that Luo would trust him with this task and never think that he'd steal the Little Seamstress for himself.

The narrator envisions himself as the leader of an army that's escorting a young wife across a desert to her beloved. He imagines the end of the journey when the lady runs into her husband's arms and the narrator faints from exhaustion. The narrator refers to himself as "the secret agent" and describes his daily walk to the Little Seamstress's house. He mentions that the ravens still observe the narrow part of the path. The narrator carries a hod that holds a novel, hidden among vegetables.

The narrator says that the Little Seamstress isn't aware she's being watched; she just thinks of the narrator as a "substitute reader." The narrator says that she seems to enjoy his style of reading to her, as he reads a few pages and then asks her what she thinks will happen next. Then, he tells her what the book says will happen, and embellishes when he feels the novel gets boring.

The tailor becomes used to the narrator's presence and also seems to enjoy the storytelling. Between chapters, the narrator offers to do chores like fetching water and cooking. The narrator says that thanks to the "respect for womanhood" he'd learned from Balzac, he even starts doing the Little Seamstress's laundry. He says that this "softened his temperament" and allowed him to intimately view the female realm.

One afternoon, the narrator applies crushed balsam flowers to the Little Seamstress's fingernails. She asks him where he learned this "girlish stuff," and he explains that he learned this trick of staining nails red from his mother. The narrator wants to ask the Little Seamstress if he can kiss her nails the next day, but he remembers his promise to Luo.

When the narrator leaves the Little Seamstress's house that night, 15 young men jealously follow him along the path and taunt him. The village cripple blocks the narrator's way and asks if he enjoys washing the Little Seamstress's underwear. Embarrassed, the narrator watches the cripple remove his pants and underwear and wave the dirty underwear at him. The narrator is so angry and embarrassed he's close to tears. He tries to swing the hod at the cripple's head, but he misses and the contents spill. The book and vegetables scatter.

The young men squat down around the book and look at Balzac's portrait. They ask the cripple if the portrait is of Karl Marx, Stalin, or Lenin, and the narrator suddenly shouts, "Don't touch," lunges for the book, and runs off with it. The youths throw stones at the narrator and one hits his ear hard enough to damage his hearing and draw blood. Eventually the young men give up, and the "secret agent" decides that he can't accomplish his mission.

In the house that night, the narrator can't escape the sense and smell of the damp or the pain in his ear. He tries to read, but can't concentrate because of the pain. The narrator stays up all night, imagining that the gang of young men are attacking him again. He pictures himself tied to a tree as the gang tortures him. The cripple slices off the narrator's ear, and the gang flees when the Little Seamstress bursts in.

The narrator imagines that the Little Seamstress unties him and allows him to lick her fingers, the nails red from the balsam juice. The balsam juice turns to lava that rolls down the narrator's chin, down his front, and finally enters his body through his navel. The narrator masturbates (which he terms a "betrayal") as the oil lamps die and the alarm clock shows midnight.