The scene shifts to Grand Isle, where Victor is making a few repairs during the off-season on the pension while flirting with Mariequita. Edna appears suddenly, saying she had come to rest for a while. Startled, Victor scurries to manage room and board for her; she requests fish for dinner and asks for towels, announcing that she is going swimming.
In reality, she plans to drown herself, having decided during her sleepless night that suicide was the only means to elude the responsibilities and obligations motherhood placed on her. She also realized that someday her passion for Robert would fade, and so had become utterly despondent.
Once on the beach, she sees a bird with a broken wing falling to its own ultimate death in the water. She puts on her bathing suit but then casts it off, standing naked on the beach and feeling as if she is seeing everything for the first time. Entering the water, she swims farther and farther out while mentally sorting through her circumstances. Her last thought is a vivid recollection of a childhood scene.
