- It's time for another epigraph. This one comes to us from Christabel LaMotte herself, who finally gets to make her mark on the text. Here, we get a brief retelling of the Rapunzel story, just in time to foreshadow the entrance of Maud Bailey—a feminist scholar with long, not-so-flowing hair whose office is at the top of a tall tower.
- Roland's train rolls in to Lincoln, where he plans to meet Maud Bailey and ask her some questions about Christabel LaMotte.
- Roland has spent most of the train ride catching up the existing LaMotte scholarship. To get us caught up, too, the novel shows us excerpts from the books that Roland was reading.
- When Roland gets off the train, Maud Bailey is waiting at the station to meet him. She drives him to the university and shows him up to her office.
- Once they're settled, Roland explains his inkling that Christabel LaMotte and Randolph Henry Ash might have corresponded.
- After talking with Roland for a little while, Maud brings him to the Women's Resource Centre, where the journals of Blanche Glover—Christabel LaMotte's housemate and supposed lover—are kept.
- As he skims through Blanche Glover's journals, Roland comes across tantalizing tidbits that intrigue him. He finds complaints about Christabel spending too much time writing correspondence, increasingly resentful complaints about "[l]etters, letters, letters" arriving for Christabel (4.69), and even descriptions of an unknown "prowler" stalking around their home.
- After skimming the journals, Roland feels sure that Christabel LaMotte must have been Randolph Henry Ash's mystery woman. The problem is, he still has no hard proof.
- When the library closes for the day, Maud and Roland sit down together for a cup of coffee. As they talk, Roland decides shows Maud the photocopies of the letters that he stole from the London Library.
- After Maud reads the letters, Roland comes clean about having stolen the originals.
- Maud accuses him of looking for an "academic scoop" (4.105), but Roland denies it: he insists that his interest in the mystery is personal, not for profit.
- Instinctively, Maud believes Roland, though she isn't quite sure why.
- Roland needs another day's work to finish his research, and because he can't afford to book a hotel room, Maud invites him to spend the night on her couch. He accepts.
- At her apartment, Maud gives Roland a copy of Christabel LaMotte's Tales for Innocents to read while she makes supper. As Roland turns the pages, we readers catch brief glimpses of the stories bound inside.
- As he reads, Roland also studies the illustrations that accompany the stories—captivating prints of woodcuts that were carved by Blanche Glover.
- When Maud returns with supper, she and Roland chat about the Tales. They're drawn to one in particular—a story about a woman who wants a child so badly that she declares "she would give anything for a child, of any kind, even a hedgehog" (4.123). Lo and behold, the woman soon gives birth to a little boy who's both human and hedgehog, and covered all over with prickles and spines.
- Roland and Maud chat about literature and literary scholarship for a little while, then Maud makes up a bed for Roland on the couch.
- Afterward, Roland shows Maud the original letters that he stole from the London Library.
- Maud finds the letters just as captivating as Roland does, and the sight of them inspires her to extend another invitation to Roland. She asks him if he wants to take a little road trip the next morning, to look at the manor house where Christabel LaMotte spent the last 20+ years of her life.
- As Roland settles into his couch-bed for the evening, Maud takes a shower and gets ready for bed. She reflects on her affair with Fergus Wolff, her beauty, her feminism, and her flowing golden hair.
- Roland, who's lying snug as a bug on Maud's couch, picks up Tales for Innocents again and begins to read, we readers see the very same story he does. From this point on, the chapter transcribes the text of "The Glass Coffin": a fairy tale in which an adventurous tailor has an adventure, rescues a fair damsel and her kingdom, defeats an evil wizard, and is rewarded with a lifetime of wedded bliss and happy industry.