Summary

Paul’s days in prison, where he can passively exist from day to day, end without warning. One day he is hauled before the prison governor, who informs him that Home Secretary Maltravers has ordered him to be released to a nursing home to have his appendix taken out. Paul’s protests that he has had the procedure done a long time ago fall on deaf ears, the higher orders superseding anything he might have to say.

The clothing and accessories that were taken away from him upon his arrest are returned, he is allowed to shave, and with nothing to show for his imprisonment except a cropped head, he comes out looking like “any civilized, normal man.” Immediately, the attitude of the warders changes to one of deference. A warder escorts him by train to Cliff House, which he learns is a sanatorium owned...