The Spectator Bird

Joe tells Ruth that the next 10 pages of his journal are mostly quotes from long-dead writers and philosophers, but she insists that he read her some of them, opining that it is “important to know what [he was] thinking about” after the countess’s revelations (87). He reads her a long quote from his favorite philosopher, the Roman emperor and stoic Marcus Aurelius, about the folly of fearing a natural process like death. Ruth is concerned that he was entertaining such “morbid” thoughts but also gratified by his new willingness to share his darker feelings.

Joe’s journal picks up on May 13 with a discussion of Astrid’s extreme isolation in her own country, which helps explain why he and Ruth have become so important to her on such a short acquaintance. He adds that she has set a date for their visit to her family castle (May 20) when her “wicked” brother will be away. Joe hopes to combine the trip with a pilgrimage to Bregninge, his mother’s village. On May 16, Joe drives the three of them to visit Karen Blixen. He is so taken with the “Druidical” beauty of the spring landscape that he abruptly makes a U-turn to drive again through a particularly lovely corridor of flowering beechwoods—a spontaneous action that surprises and delights Astrid.