This chapter opens with a flashback to the beginning of the previous chapter, in which we learn that we are now in the middle of a conversation between Elmire and Darnay. Darnay asks Elmire why she is asking him questions, and Elmire explains that she is afraid that her apologies will not be accepted, and that her relationship with Darnay will be awkward. Elmire then asks Darnay if he has forgotten his contract with Elmire, and he says that he has, because it is for the clan's sake. She then asks him why he has sacrificed so many small things in order to be a member of Darnay's clan. He replies that he is unable to regard such small things as small, because he has so much on his mind. He then asks her why she thinks that way, and she says that she does not know.