Chapter 2 Summary

Paul tries to dodge both Molly's question about his poetry and her attempts to get him to talk about his real life. He tells how his ex-wife kills off their marriage. During dinner, the communist journalist Piero Cremona comes over to talk about what everyone had known was coming, given a man of action in the White House. The generals will fail and the U.S. Marines will have to come to the rescue. Molly is Australian, wants to be a real writer but produces "tripe" about Italian fashions. They have been together since first making love, and Webster has her investigated in Canberra.

At the safe house on Q Street in Washington, DC, David Patchen says Foley wants Paul fired. David and Paul have been friends since recuperating from wounds together in World War II. David's facial paralysis and limp disqualify him...