Thérèse discovers Rosalie imprisoned

Thérèse discovers Rosalie imprisoned when a search of Rodin’s house leads her to a cellar hidden behind firewood. The discovery overturns Rodin’s account of Rosalie’s departure and reveals the immediate danger behind her disappearance: Rosalie has been confined by her father after resisting his abuse and fearing what he and Rombeau intend to do next. Thérèse cannot free her on the spot, but promises to return and bring the police if she cannot find another way to rescue her.

The concealed disappearance

Thérèse has already concluded that Rosalie should flee Rodin’s household. The danger there is, in her judgment, too real and persistent for her to blame herself for urging Rosalie to escape; leaving her exposed to her father’s control seems worse than the risk of flight. Thérèse has begun to broach the idea carefully and believes she may be nearing success when Rosalie suddenly vanishes.

Rodin and the household servants give a consistent explanation: Rosalie has gone for the summer to stay with a relative ten leagues away. Neighbors say that they saw her and bade her farewell the day before she left. This public appearance of a departure initially makes the story seem corroborated, but it does not resolve Thérèse’s doubts. She wonders why Rosalie would have gone without a word, given their affection, and why Rodin would have kept the departure from her or prevented her from accompanying her mistress.

When Thérèse challenges him, Rodin claims that secrecy was meant to spare both women a difficult scene and assures her she will soon see Rosalie again. Thérèse has to endure the answer without being convinced. Her knowledge of Rodin’s character turns the unexplained absence into an alarm: she resolves to search the house and use any means necessary to learn what has happened.

The cellar and Rosalie’s account

The next day, finding herself alone in the house, Thérèse searches its corners. She thinks she hears moans from a dark cellar. At the end of a passage, a pile of firewood blocks a narrow door; she moves the obstruction, approaches, and listens until the noises resolve into a voice. Rosalie recognizes her and calls her by name. The hidden cellar, concealed within the same house where Rodin has presented Rosalie’s absence as an ordinary visit, makes the deception concrete.

Rosalie recounts that, shortly before her supposed departure, Rodin’s friend and colleague Rombeau examined her. Rodin then ordered her to submit to further abuse by Rombeau. When she resisted, Rodin intervened against her and handed her over to his associate. Rosalie says the men continued to mistreat her over a period of four or five hours, while leaving her exposed and repeatedly resuming their abuse.

Afterward, Rodin told Rosalie she was to go to the country to visit family, insisting that she leave at once and say nothing to Thérèse. He said he would explain his reasons the next day and intended to join her. The announced journey thus served as the cover for an engineered disappearance: Rosalie was allowed to cross the town and bid acquaintances farewell under an older woman’s guardianship, but, when night fell, her conductress brought her back to Rodin’s house.

Rosalie says Rodin had led her to believe he would marry her, which explained to her the examination by Rombeau. Instead, after she returned at midnight, Rodin seized her, silenced her, and put her in the cellar. She has been fed and looked after there, but her confinement and the earlier events make her fear that the men intend to use her in an experiment. Her explanation transforms the false marriage promise and staged departure into parts of Rodin’s plan to keep her under his control.

Thérèse’s attempted rescue

Rosalie does not know where the cellar key is kept and thinks Rodin and the others may not take it with them. Thérèse searches for it but finds nothing. When she must return upstairs, she has no means of opening the door and can offer Rosalie only words of comfort and hope. The discovery therefore does not immediately become an escape: Thérèse has located the prisoner and learned what happened, yet remains unable to release her.

Rosalie makes Thérèse swear to come back the following day. Thérèse promises, and sets a further course of action: if she has not discovered anything satisfactory about Rosalie by then, she will leave the house, fetch the police, and rescue her at any cost. The episode ends with Rosalie still confined, but with the secrecy of her imprisonment broken and Thérèse committed to seeking outside help if her own efforts fail.

Narrative significance

The scene pivots on the contrast between the story Rodin tells publicly and the truth Thérèse uncovers privately. Neighbors’ farewells and the servants’ repeated explanation lend the disappearance an appearance of normality; a blocked cellar door and Rosalie’s voice expose that appearance as a deliberate concealment. The sequence also makes Thérèse’s loyalty practical rather than merely sympathetic: she questions Rodin, investigates the house, searches for the key, and promises to involve the police.

The cellar is both the physical site of Rosalie’s captivity and the secret that Rodin’s household attempts to keep beneath its respectable account of a summer visit. The discovery reveals the limits of Thérèse’s immediate power: she can recognize the danger and reach Rosalie, but cannot yet open the door. Her promise to return preserves the scene’s unresolved stakes and carries the rescue attempt forward.