heads off on their ride in the countryside accompanied only by a single groom, whom Maria soon dispatches to a local inn to wile away the afternoon, leaving her and Sanin to themselves. The seemingly fearless Maria leads Sanin on a vigorous ride across the countryside that leaves them invigorated and their horses breathless. When a thunderstorm moves in Maria leads them both to an abandoned cottage where they make love. After their return to Wiesbaden, Sanin is eaten with remorse. When Maria greets her husband in his presence Sanin detects an uncharacteristic look of irritation on Polozov's face and it is revealed that he and his wife Maria had a wager on whether she could seduce Sanin, a wager Polozov has now lost. Maria asks Sanin if he is to return to Frankfurt or accompany them to Paris. His response is that he will follow Maria until she drives him away. His humiliation is complete. The story then reverts to the present, some thirty years after these events. Sanin is again in his study, contemplating the garnet cross (previously revealed to have belonged to Gemma); and Sanin is again eaten with remorse, and recalls all the bitter and shameful memories he felt after the events of Wiesbaden, such as how he sent a tearful letter to Gemma that went unanswered, how he sent a groom of the Polozovs to fetch his things in Frankfurt, and even how the elderly Pantaleone, accompanied by Emilio, came to Wiesbaden to curse him. Most of all he recounts his embittered and shame-ridden life afterwards, in which he followed Maria until he was thrown off like an old rag and has since remained unmarried and childless. Now in his fifties, he decides to return to Frankfurt to track down his old love but once there finds no trace of the former Roselli home nor anyone who has even heard of them, though he does discover that Karl Klüber though initially very successful eventually went bankrupt and died in prison. Finally, however, he finds a now retired Baron von Dönhof, who tells him that the Rosellis had long since emigrated to America. Through the conversation of von Dönhof and Sanin it is also revealed that Maria Nikolaevna died “long ago.” With the help of a friend of von Dönhof, Sanin obtains Gemma's address in New York, where she is married to a certain Slocum. Sanin