The Valley of Amazement

After Magic Gourd is stricken with influenza, she receives treatment from both a Chinese and a Western doctor. Just as she recovers, Violet comes down with the same illness. As Violet begins to recover, Edward also succumbs to a mild case of the flu.

Violet writes an angry letter to her father, accusing him of cowardice and abandonment. He writes back, offering an apology without any excuses for his behavior. He intends to give Violet the mansion in his will. At first, she’s inclined to reject the bequest, but Edward convinces her to accept the property. Violet says, “My rage toward my mother and him used to consume me. They could never sufficiently compensate me. How could they return the life I should have had? But now I had the life I always would have wanted” (419-20). Although her anger toward Lu Shing abates, she tells Edward to hide any future letters from her father until she asks to read them.

By the summer of 1918, the epidemic subsides, and peace is declared in Europe. In January of the following year, Violet’s baby girl is born. Edward decides to call her Flora. The little family lives happily for a brief time until Edward falls sick again.