Encouraged by his apparent willingness to entertain her innocence, Clara demands that Henry recount in full the incident that made him think she was having an affair with Carwin. He explains that for as long as he has known Clara, she has seemed to him to be the ideal woman. He has studied her closely in every detail to recommend her as a model to Theresa, the girl in Germany that he loves. When he believed his beloved to have died, he took comfort in Clara’s company. Then, an “imp of mischief…in the form of Carwin” (63) disrupted the homeostasis of their little community.

Henry confesses also that he once inadvertently slipped up behind Clara unnoticed while she was writing in her diary and caught a glimpse of the page she was writing. He saw a reference to “the summerhouse,” “midnight,” and “another” interview. When Clara caught him looking at her private writing, she became flustered and quickly concealed the pages. Henry concluded that the text referred to the evening he found her alone in her summerhouse under the bank, and, remembering her apparent discomfort every time the incident was mentioned, he supposed that she was contemplating some kind of clandestine interview there.