Wieland

Clara and her family have plans to meet in the temple that afternoon. Clara hopes that Henry will finally declare his love and ask her to marry him, but Henry does not appear at the temple. Clara spends half the night brooding then gets up to fetch a book from her closet. As she reaches for the lock, she hears an inhuman voice from right beside her shriek, “Hold! Hold!” She whirls around, but the room is empty. Connecting the words to those in the dream in the summerhouse, she irrationally concludes that her brother is in the closet.

Clara opens the door, and Carwin emerges. Carwin confesses that he had planned to sexually assault her, but the presence of supernatural aid—in the form of the voice that cried out for Clara to stop—prevented him. If he had attempted to injure her, the supernatural force would have destroyed him, but he adds that even if he had succeeded in his aim, she would not have lost honor or virtue. He refers to the importance society places on a woman’s virtue as a chimera, or an illusion. Carwin announces that having been exposed, he is leaving the neighborhood forever.