With conditions changing in the home where he rents a room, Dr. Jordan finds himself performing the same kinds of domestic tasks that Grace performed during her years as a live-in servant. As he takes on a more traditionally feminine role in the household, Dr. Jordan grows anxious that this new role will injure his masculine authority. Dr. Jordan briefly considers asking Grace for advice about domestic service but then rejects the idea. Yet even if he refuses to talk about it with Grace, the experience of performing domestic labor forces Dr. Jordan into firsthand experiences that echo those Grace has recounted. For example, in Part VIII, Grace describes a traumatic experience when Nancy sent her out to butcher a chicken. Even though Jamie Walsh slaughtered the chicken on her behalf, Grace found the whole event profoundly upsetting. Similarly, in Part IX, Dr. Jordan buys a chicken from the market, and he nearly throws the carcass away when he realizes he has to clean it himself. Even if Dr. Jordan wants to maintain an impression of himself as an “all-knowing authority” and thereby preserve his advantage in the doctor–patient power dynamic, it is clear that this is a pretense, and he is much more like Grace than he cares to admit.