When they arrive in Paris, Louis and Claudia move into the Hotel Saint-Gabriel, where she refurnishes their room to her tastes. Louis thinks, “I am not so much in love with happiness. Yet the name Paris makes me feel it” (203). Louis sees Paris as the mother of New Orleans. Yet, he is as happy as he has ever been.

However, Claudia begins leaving him for greater lengths of time. She is obsessed with the fact that she will have a child’s body forever. One evening she comes home with a doll with a woman’s figure. She has been seeing a dollmaker and convinced her to make a doll with a woman’s body. She crushes it in front of him and asks what it was like to make love, making Louis feel guiltier than ever.

One night as Louis walks, he realizes that someone is following him. He feels that it must be a vampire because it matches his movements exactly. He sees the vampire on a rooftop, and it mimics him. Another vampire appears and ends the fight before it can begin. He gives Louis a card with an invitation to

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