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Mrs Quasimodo recounts her lifelong fascination with the cathedral’s bells, describing their “bronze throats” and the soothing sound of evensong. She lives alone in the upper levels of the cathedral, cooking simple meals and watching the city from the rooftops. During Christmas she meets the bellringer, who invites her into the belltower. The two have a night of sex beneath the ringing bells, after which they marry. Their marriage is brief and feverish; she details his physical quirks—horseshoe mouth, tetrahedron nose, pirate wart on his right eye, pig‑hide throat—and gives him a private name for his genitalia. Their life together unfolds among the cathedral’s neighbors: gargoyles, fallen angels, and saints. One night in the lady chapel, she kisses the cold lips of a queen beside a king, an act that seems to change everything. The bellringer grows distant, watching a pin‑up gypsy in the square and later looking at Mrs Quasimodo with “no more love than stone.” Overwhelmed by self‑loathing and his contempt, she plots revenge. She describes her self‑criticism in brutal terms, then proceeds to the belltower armed with a claw‑hammer, pliers, saw, and clamp. She brutally dismantles the bells, ripping out their “brazen tongue” and silencing their “arpeggios, scales, stretti, trills.” After an hour of labor, she stands among the dead bells, covered in blood, and urinates in triumph, declaring the end of their music.