Chapter 2 Summary

The second day at sea opens with Morgan enjoying an early morning swim with Rosenfelder, from whom he begins to learn the story of the still-unnamed tall goddess and her relationship to Scurra. A gentleman friend stood her up twice, and she was suicidal, traveling with only the clothes on her back and two pounds in her purse. Scurra was encouraging her that the friend might yet appear.

Morgan and Rosenfelder part, and Morgan spends two hours in the library, trying to write the letter to his uncle. Molly Dodge chides him for disappearing the night before, and she will not accept his claim that he has grown tired of fun. He is just playing a part, she says. He makes little progress with the letter and abandons it, reasoning that his uncle has enough paintings to fill the Louvre museum and puts...