[1] A long-haired silver cat is nearly burnt in the bonfire Edward has set up for the autumn leaves, but his wife Louisa rescues it.
Louisa begins to play one of her daily concerts on the piano, a solitary pleasure that also seems to be one of her greatest passions, and chooses pieces by Vivaldi, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms.
Edward believes the reactions to simply be a trick it was trained to perform, and refuses to take part in his wife's excitement (it is implied he is not as fond of music as Louisa).
Finally, it mentions historical figures who were, it suggests, reincarnations of one another: (Epictetus, for instance, is said to have come back as Ralph Waldo Emerson).
When she returns from the kitchen, she sees Edward coming in from the garden with black smoke, wet trouser cuffs, and long scratches from his wrist to his knuckle — the implication being he has thrown the cat on the fire.