Calm at first, the audience eventually stampedes for the exit. The actor playing Orpheus collapses on the stage in the manner of a plague victim just as Eurydice is taken back to the Underworld. Tarrou writes of a performance of Gluck's Orpheus. During the plague, everyone craves this same contact, but they must also distrust everyone as a possible carrier of the deadly plague. He craves human contact, but he distrusts everyone as a possible police informant. He is happier now that he no longer bears that burden alone. Cottard has always lived with a constant sense of fear. Meanwhile, Tarrou devotes a great deal of attention to Cottard in his notebooks. Rieux hardens his heart against the desperation of the families of plague victims in order to continue doing his work. Rieux verifies his suspicion that her health is failing with the sanitarium authorities. Grand often talks about Jeanne to Rieux he, in turn, unburdens his worries about his own wife.
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