Tender is the Night Book 1, Chapter 12

Rosemary, the Norths, Dick Diver and two young French musicians were waiting for Nicole at a restaurant. They were judging every man that walked in to see if he had any repose, as Dick had claimed that he was the only American who had some. Dick and Abe bet on the repose of a general that walked in, but Dick won since the general had none. Although they had been in Paris for two days, Rosemary felt that the atmosphere with these people was the same as that when she was at the beach with them. The Divers seemed to know everybody, and yet whenever anybody saw them, it was though they hadn't seen them in a very long time, as they always asked where the Divers kept hiding. Dick made the group he was with feel bright again, and soon Nicole appeared. Rosemary had fun at lunch, and the fact that there were only seven of them made it all the nicer, as she felt that that was the limit of a good party. Rosemary went to make a telephone call, and when she was done she heard two low voices a few feet away from her, on the other side of the row of coats. She recognized them as Dick and Nicole's voices, and they were expressing their love and passion for each other. They agreed to meet at the hotel at four.

Topic Tracking: Love 6

Rosemary was astonished. Although they were married, they always appeared to be cool in their relation to one another, and she was deeply moved by the strong emotions she had just heard. As they continued their day, and she was shopping with Nicole, she saw her in a new light, and thinking through her mother's mind, judged Nicole's attitude about money. Whereas Rosemary spent her money carefully, buying limited items, Nicole shopped for herself and bought everything she liked that she couldn't use for other people, and it seemed as if everybody and everything gave way to her.

Topic Tracking: Money 1

"She illustrated very simple principles, containing in herself her own doom, but illustrated them so accurately that there was grace in the procedure, and presently Rosemary would try to imitate it." Book 1, Chapter 12, pg. 55

It was almost four when Nicole, standing in a shop with a lovebird on her shoulder, had one of her infrequent outbursts of speech. She spoke about how, when she was thirteen and lived in Berlin, just before her mother died, her sister, Beth, was supposed to go to a ball, and had three royal princes on her dance card. Her sister, half an hour before the ball, was suddenly was diagnosed with appendicitis, and the doctor said that she was to be operated on immediately. However, her mother had her plans made and strapped an ice pack to her sister's belly and she went to the ball and danced until two. They operated on her the next day at seven in the morning. Nicole said that it was good to be hard then, and that all nice people were hard, but all Rosemary could think of was that Dick was waiting for Nicole at the hotel. After going to one more store to buy corsages for them both and one for Mary North, Nicole seemed to remember about Dick, and quickly signaled for a taxi and left.