The towns people have various ideas about what the winged old man is. What do Pelayo and Elisenda think he is? What does their neighbor think? And Father Gonzaga
Pelayo and Elisenda are told that the old man is an angel who has come to take their sick child away. They lock him in a chicken coup. The neighbors at first are intrigued as is father Gonzaga. After father Gonzaga concludes that the angel doesn't follow the very literal precepts of the church (speak latin.....) the town looses interest in the old man; he becomes more a freak than anything else. Elisenda spends much of the story trying to make her hose "angel free" but as the old man flies off she does feel regret. She doesn't know why but something profound has been lost.
