A Fall of Marigolds

Andrew and the others in isolation are increasingly ill, and Clara notes that she “wanted to give every man there [her] kindest attention” but admits that she “found [her]self continually gravitating toward Andrew” (129). Andrew makes it through the worst of the illness and begins to share with Clara how he met Lily.

He explains that he met her as he was waiting to leave for America, and she fell in love with him the day they met. For Andrew, however, it was not like falling but more “like…stepping into a room. […].One [he’d] never been inside before. And [he] stepped in because [he] wanted to” (131). Clara realizes this is exactly how she’d felt about Edward: She “felt connected to Edward the moment [she] met him, as if a history had already been written about [them], but the record was stowed in some heavenly place [she] could not visit” (131).

Clara is moved to tears by Andrew’s description of meeting Lily, and she tells Andrew about Edward. When Andrew asks Clara if Edward loved her in return, she answers that Edward “was destined to love [her]” (132). She tells Andrew that she is at

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