Chapter 6 — recovery; Elizabeth's letter

Victor's recovery is long and uneven. Henry stays in Ingolstadt all winter, taking lodgings near Victor's, watching him through fevers and relapses. By spring Victor is up and walking; by summer he can hold a conversation. Henry has been hiding from him the news from home, fearing the strain. Eventually, gently, Henry hands Victor a letter from Elizabeth — the first family communication that has reached him in many months.

Elizabeth writes warmly. She is glad Henry has reported him better. She gives him family news. The young servant Justine Moritz has joined the household after her stepmother turned her out; Caroline had taken her in years ago; she is now almost a member of the family, a "smile without thought of self" in Elizabeth's phrasing. Little William is growing — five years old now, beautiful, talkative, curious about everything. Ernest is studying. Alphonse, Victor's father, sends his love. Elizabeth ends the letter with the gentlest possible reproach about Victor's silence and asks him to write soon.

Victor reads the letter and weeps. The world he has lost contact with is still, miraculously, in place. The members of his household are still going about their lives, still loving him, still expecting him to return. He does not, however, write back. He cannot — there is too much to explain and too much to hide. He decides, with Henry's encouragement, to spend the rest of the term recovering and to return to Geneva at the end of it. The chapter is gentle. It is also the novel's quietest moment of foreshadowing. The household it describes will be destroyed before Victor sees most of its members again.