Part Two: Chapter XIX, The Letter Summary and Analysis

This chapter constitutes a letter that Maria sent to friends in Europe and America. "While driving up the West Coast from Los Angeles to Seattle, I noticed how pale he looked, but he insisted he felt perfectly all right except for a growing tiredness".

Georg develops a terrible cough and Maria begs him to go to New York to see a specialist who once treated him for bronchitis. The cough worsens and in Colorado he leaves on a plane. There is a nationwide telephone strike and Maria can not speak to him for five days. A telegraph informs her that the Captain is recovering from pneumonia. She speaks to Georg who tells her to come, although he is doing better.

When she arrives at the hospital in New York, she beholds...