Summary

In Chapter 23, Rusty shows up unexpectedly at Cliff’s, and Cliff gives him some manuscripts of his to read. Rusty draws out the evening and manipulates Cliff into paying for a night on the town. Rusty makes sure to namedrop his boss several times throughout the evening to remind Cliff that he is indebted to him. Rusty rests his hand on Cliff’s knee in the back of the taxicab. Cliff feels sick to his stomach and thinks to himself that it was “not because he disliked homosexuals per se” but because he “had a flash of the kind of lecherous old-man homosexual Rusty was destined to be” (154).

In Chapter 24 and Chapter 25, Eden builds her new identity and acquires the necessary documentation to prove her identity as Eden Collins. Meanwhile, Diana, Eden’s friend from Indiana, visits her in New York. Eden realizes how...