Chapters 4-6 Summary

In Chapter 4 Augie and Jimmy get caught swindling money from Deever's Department Store during Christmas time but are not prosecuted. Augie falls in unrequited love with Hilda Novinson and meets his first gangsters while working for Bluegren Florist. Grandma demands that Georgie, having reached puberty, be institutionalized, and out-argues Mama and Augie. The household dynamic shifts without him. The boys grow ruder and the house seems threadbare. Winnie dies of old age.

In Chapter 5 Augie describes working in his junior year as rich, crippled William Einhorn's "secretary, deputy, agent, companion." His duties are varied, some demeaning, but he rejects Simon's mockery about being just a butler. The Einhorn family also includes William's aged but spry father, "The Commissioner," who still runs the real estate and investment business, William's wife Tillie, his half-brother, Shep, known as "Dingbat," a boxer, and his only...