Two years have passed; Tom has learned from the Bible to be content with what he has, and he has become closer to Eva. While the family and servants are at the St. Clare summer house on Lake Pontchartrain, Eva tells Tom she will die soon, and he realizes she is growing pale and thin. Ophelia, too, has noticed Eva’s illness, but St. Clare refuses to see or admit it. Marie, however, is oblivious to her daughter’s condition.
St. Clare’s brother, with his 12-year-old son Henrique, visits at the summer house. Eva and Henrique are going riding. Henrique beats his young groom (another 12-year-old, a slave named Dodo) with his riding whip for a minor offense. Eva calls her cousin wicked and cruel, which surprises him: He has a quick temper, and beating is what one does to slaves. Watching this exchange between their children, St. Clare and his brother get into a discussion about slavery. When the children return, St. Clare is alarmed to see that Eva is feverish and short of breath. Eva tries to make Henrique promise to love Dodo and be kind to him, and, although Henrique finds the idea of loving a slave a strange one, he says he will try to do so for Eva’s sake.
Eva now becomes so unwell that her father is forced to call in a doctor. Eva’s symptoms abate after a couple of weeks, but although St. Clare takes this for a hopeful sign, the doctor, Ophelia, and Eva herself know that she is dying. Eva tells Tom that she wishes she could give her life for all slaves. She tells her father that she wishes he would free his slaves, for, if anything should happen to him, they would be in bad hands. She makes St. Clare promise that he will free Tom as soon as she dies, and she tries to make him promise to free all his slaves and work for abolition. At last, St. Clare seems to believe that Eva is truly dying.
On a following Sunday, Ophelia finds Topsy cutting up Ophelia’s things for doll clothes. She says she doesn’t know how to make the child behave; Marie suggests sending her out to be whipped. Topsy admits to St. Clare that she guesses she was just born bad, and Ophelia says she gives up. Eva draws Topsy aside and finds that Topsy has never loved anyone, has never been loved. Eva tells Topsy that she loves her, and so does Jesus. St. Clare, watching the children, tells Ophelia she will never get anywhere with Topsy until she can touch her, and Ophelia admits she wishes she were more like Eva, who is Christ-like.
