Chapter Nine Summary

In his authorial voice, Waugh asserts that Aimée, raised and educated in Los Angeles, owes the shaping of her brain and body to the effects of southern California, but her spirit is more lofty than that. Upon the exposure of Dennis as a fake and a liar, she has no doubt about what she will write in her final letter to Guru Brahmin. Mr. Slump, badly shaven and scarcely sober, is in danger of losing his job but does not know it. He is disgusted to see another letter from Aimée, and when the secretary explains that Aimée has been duped by her fiancée, Mr. Slump just says to tell her to marry the other guy, which Aimée already has decided to do. Her engagement to Dennis had not been formally announced, but the engagement of...