The narrator, a woman who has been living in the Shaw household, learns her contract with Jacob Shaw ends on August 16th and is told to leave. Offered a chance to stay for his birthday, she insists on leaving the same day the contract ends, choosing a clean break. A voice reveals she is Emilia Cole, the gardener's daughter who grew up with the Shaw brothers, who famously doted on her. She insists her relationship with Jacob is just friendship, a claim met with obvious disbelief.