Commentary, Line 469: his gun through Line 493: She took her poor young life Summary

Gradus returns to Geneva and phones headquarters. With both sides talking in code, the message is horribly mangled. Gradus believes he is supposed to wait in Geneva for a shipment of canned salmon. Headquarters believes Gradus has discovered that a letter in Disa's bureau will tell them the location of the king.

Kinbote reports a conversation with Shade about prejudice and the use of words to describe different races and cultures. The word "colored" is replacing "Negro" as the accepted appropriate term, and Shade discusses that "colored" is inexact in meaning.

Kinbote notes that "Father Time" in the poem harkens back to an earlier mention of "Mother Time" and that "Exe" stands for "Exton." As the poem addresses Hazel's suicide, Kinbote...