In the Skin of a Lion: Part 2: Chapter 2: Remorse Summary & Analysis

In Alice’s room, Patrick recalls his old desire to know Alice when she was old. Lying in bed, where her smell still lies, he finds that he cannot sleep and fears losing his precise memory of her face. He recalls a conversation in which he asked her why she liked him, and she said he gave her energy and confidence. Patrick leaves Alice’s room with a suitcase and takes the night train to Hunstville, where there is a regatta. Thinking about the equality and justice that Alice believed in, Patrick boards a steamer and finds a deck chair by the dock to sleep in, while clutching his suitcase.

On Page Island, Patrick visits the Garden of the Blind, where he sits reading a newspaper while hearing the birds’ calls. The night before, Patrick poured paraffin in the Muskoska hotel, where many regatta-goers were staying, and dynamited the dock before rowing away. Now, a woman in the Garden of the Blind begins to talk to him, after hearing that he is reading a newspaper and must not be blind. She tells him that her name is Elizabeth and she walks around the garden with him, sharing personal stories about her life.

Patrick tells Elizabeth that he is wanted by the police for destroying property. He plans to stay at the garden until nightfall and then swim out to a boat. When Patrick sees the woman’s eye, one of which is gone entirely, it reminds him of the intense greenness of moths. They sit down together, and Patrick remembers Alice’s grand cause as well as her death in his arms. When the woman falls asleep against him, Patrick finally moves away and leaves.

At night, Patrick jumps off the dock and swims toward a night cruise under the moonlight. When a sunken log touches him, he feels suddenly scared and alive. Hearing music on the boat, he succeeds in breaking a window and climbing through it, landing on a table in the kitchen. Startled at the noise, the cook turns around but Patrick makes a sign for him to keep quiet and, after cleaning the kitchen, the cook leaves. Hearing the music above him, Patrick takes off his wet clothes, heats them in the oven, and looks for food, ultimately deciding to eat some raw meat while waiting for his clothes to dry.