The morning after the secretary's confession, Marguerite avoids him while Roberval keeps her close, drilling her on psalms and using her stumbles as opportunities to correct her. Only at night does she process the secretary's declaration of love, puzzling over his motives—he has no fortune to gain and seems honorable. She observes him during the day taking dictation, playing cards reluctantly with Roberval, and notes his quick smile and careful hands. She realizes that, unmoored from her old life, she has begun to think of him.

The winds slacken, the heat grows oppressive, and tensions rise. Word arrives that sailors brawled aboard the sister ship Valentine, with serious injuries. The Valentine's captain dines with Roberval, who, after confirming the four instigators have repented, calmly orders them hanged. Marguerite reacts with horror but cannot openly contradict her guardian. He insists she watch the executions as a lesson in justice, while Damienne refuses to attend.

From the rail, Marguerite watches Roberval cross to the Valentine to preside. The first man is hauled up the yardarm to cheers and stomping; as a second is hanged, Marguerite is crushed in the jostling crowd, grows faint, and nearly blacks out. The secretary intervenes, breaking a path through the colonists and guiding her to the forecastle, where he gives her ale and watches over her.

Alone with him, Marguerite asks who he truly is. The secretary tells his story: his merchant father was lost at sea when he was ten; his mother remarried a cruel innkeeper; his youngest sister died of a wasting illness; and once his stepfather had a son, he was sent away at thirteen, bound apprentice to a tanner with only new shoes and his mother's silver. He vowed to return for her. Before he can finish, the navigator Jean Alfonse opens the door and finds them together. Roberval is returning. Jean Alfonse sends the secretary off, helps Marguerite out, and quietly promises not to report what he saw.