Tender is the Night Book 2, Chapter 11

Dick was talking to Elsie Speers about his travels in Africa. Rosemary, Elsie's daughter, had written to Elsie saying that Nicole seemed insane. Dick quickly told her that Nicole is all right now and he changed the subject. Elsie told him that Rosemary was in love with him and that he was the only man that she had ever cared about. Dick told her that he was in love with Rosemary.

Topic Tracking: Love 21

He then went back to his workroom at Villa Diana to work on his book. He thought about his wasted years at New Haven and the growing luxury that the Divers lived in and their need to display it.

Dick saw Nicole in the garden and he started thinking. He thought about how he has to protect her and make her believe that everything is normal. He remembered how he had to hold her in Paris, and how they had to leave Rosemary. Nicole's behavior in Paris signaled a new cycle of her illness. On the train ride to the French Riviera, Nicole watched Dick intently. They spoke about whether Rosemary would be all right. Dick seemed to be on the defensive, and disagreed with Nicole's comments about how pretty and smart Rosemary is. Dick tried to forget about Rosemary so that he would not be upset. He thought about some of Nicole's recent acts of insanity. Both of them were wounded inside. His heart had become somewhat hardened towards her and, "As an indifference cherished, or left to atrophy, becomes an emptiness, to this extent he had learned to become empty of Nicole, serving her against his will with negations and emotional neglect." Book 2, Chapter 11, pg. 168