- Sophie goes to hear Joseph play when he returns to Brooklyn. But he's going away again, to Florida. He gives Sophie a silver ring.
- When he returns, but before leaving for Providence, he asks her to marry him. Sophie waffles in her answer.
- She tells her mother that Henry Napoleon isn't going to work out. She seems suspicious.
- And then, Sophie gets caught. She stays out too late one night with Joseph, and comes home to find her mother waiting for her.
- Then, Martine decides to perform a virginity test on Sophie. She's distressed, to say the least. Her mother tells her the story of the Marassas, divine, twinned souls who were lovers.
- Martine uses the story to springboard into a discussion about finding true love, a person who is closer than your marassa. But even then, love between mother and daughter is deeper.
- She tells Sophie that she knows all her secrets—including her love for Joseph—and warns her not to give up a lifetime with her mother by going off with him.
- Sophie is traumatized by the "test" and can think only of her Tante Atie screaming when her mother did the same thing to her.