Adeline comes down to breakfast pale from her dreams, and when she starts to describe them an impulse stops her, while La Motte ridicules her concern so hard that she is ashamed she mentioned them at all. All day she watches for Theodore, who was to give her some information, while the Marquis visits the abbey and talks lightly of everything but him. Only at evening does the Marquis let slip that Theodore Peyrou set out that morning for his regiment in a distant province. Adeline nearly faints, then weeps alone and argues herself out of the fear that Theodore has trifled with her. A storm keeps the Marquis overnight, Madame La Motte hands out the bedrooms, and Adeline is moved into an inner chamber.
In that room the arras waves in the wind, and behind it she finds a small bolted door. She steps down into a suite of ancient chambers, the last of them exactly like the room in her dream. There she stumbles over a rusty, stained dagger, and when a heap of lumber slides, a small roll of dusty paper tied with string falls out, too faded to read. She carries it back, fastens the door and, wanting company, goes to the top of the tower stairs. Below she hears the Marquis say he adores her, La Motte remind him of his promise, and the words "her father". Adeline decides her father has found her and that La Motte means to deliver her to him. The Marquis then rouses the house, turns ashen and rides off at once, claiming business.
At first light she begs La Motte for protection and, pressed to explain, admits she listened at the stairs. He rebukes her and points out that broken words prove little, and she sees that her fears filled the gaps. Then he tells her they were just: her father has found her and has already demanded her, and La Motte has refused out of compassion although he has neither the right nor the means to hold her. When Adeline says she resigns herself to the will of Heaven, he withdraws without another word. The Marquis returns that afternoon, kneels, kisses her hand and offers his fortune. Adeline refuses with a dignity that stops him for a moment, then tells him his pleading is unworthy of reply and walks out.
Madame La Motte weeps at the story, yet asks Adeline to behave as usual, because their asylum in the abbey depends on the Marquis's goodwill. La Motte is blunter. He calls the Marquis's conduct unmeaning gallantry and asks her to treat him as a friend. When he tests her gratitude by asking whether she would accept the Marquis's hand, she says she never could, and he sneers that fine feelings dissolve when put to the test. Adeline offers to go back to her father rather than endanger him. La Motte refuses to give her up except under compulsion, and asks only for civil behaviour towards the Marquis. She agrees to try, goes early to her room, and leaves the roll of paper from the hidden chambers unread.
