Willie wakes in Penang to a rainy morning and writes notes on Lesley's story, eager for night so she can resume. Gerald joins him and crudely speculates about Lesley's affair with Sun Yat Sen. Willie shares only that Robert had an affair with a Chinese man, and Gerald claims Robert has been discreetly eyeing him, asserting Lesley secretly finds homosexuals repulsive. Willie is doubtful, recalling Robert's careful concealment over years of friendship.

The conversation turns painful when Gerald laments his banishment from England, blaming Willie's wife Syrie. He longs to see his ailing mother before she dies and announces he intends to move to America to find work. Willie, dismayed, recognizes the loss he had feared has begun.

That evening, Robert proposes a visit to the Protestant cemetery. Lesley bribes the Tamil watchman for entry. Willie reflects on his Aunt Sophie and his stammering childhood as they wander among graves of missionaries, settlers, and traders. Lesley quietly leads him to the modest graves of Taiping rebels who fled to Penang, including Madam Cheah, a female soldier who was Dr Arthur Loh's grandmother. Sun Wen had visited to pay respects.

Robert proudly shows Willie the tombs of Francis Light and James Scott, co-founders of Penang. Scott, Robert's great-great-great-uncle and a cousin of Sir Walter Scott, inspired Robert's eastward journey. Lesley pointedly reveals that Scott cheated Light's Eurasian common-law wife, Martina Rozells, of her inheritance, dryly suggesting little has changed. Willie deciphers a worn headstone for Anna Hammond bearing a Jeremiah verse. Lesley remarks the cemetery is a place where the dead are forgotten, and the watchman locks them out as night falls.