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Notes on The Soul of the Rose

Delphinia leaves Gauvain and Oskar staring resentfully at each other.

Distraught, Delphinia listens anxiously for word of Gauvain till she is lulled into a semi-conscious state. It is in this state she travels to Oriente's room.

Delphinia steps into Oriente's room, drawn by Oriente's "presence." She dares to take her diary from the room and read it in secret.

However, Beatrice interrupts with unsettling news. Adelia is to arrive within days. As soon as she is able, Delphinia requests an interview with the Markgraf, but Gervaise tells her he has left on an unexpected journey.

Delphinia is filled with anxiety as shadows gather and a storm builds. Unanswered questions leave her restless. Feeling afraid at all kinds of sounds without her room, she secures the door and lights a candle, determined to soothe away her terror by reading Oriente's diary

Oriente recalls her earliest childhood days and Oskar, the boy charged with pushing her wheelchair. Circumstances beyond her understanding separate them, and Oriente becomes lost to the world. She isolates herself in a secret world. When Oriente is a teenager Oskar appears again, and her childhood obsession with him separates. He is entranced with her and refuses to be apart from her, thwarting convention to embrace her.

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