He flew down to see Steffie every other Sunday, and on most visits he took her places while Karen remained at home. He had nothing to say to Karen, and if he could have arranged it, he would not have seen her at all. She understood that she could have a divorce whenever she wanted, but she made no move. She was seeing Palmer again, as she had promised. If anything, it was only what it had been before; some lie or other was holding Palmer off, but Leland tried to keep his thoughts away from it. He felt relieved, unhappy, lonely, and not curiously, ashamed. His progress in Manitou was good and he was invited to spend the holidays with two families. He was able to decline and go to Port Smith. Karen wanted them all together for Christmas. The day was a success for Steffie, as much as success was possible. Karen was tense, but she tried to be pleasant. He followed her lead. On New Year’s Eve, in Manitou at a party given by one of the men under him, he drank himself unconscious.

Another man, thinking he was divorced, arranged a date with his sister, a pretty brunette twenty-nine years old. Leland straightened out the misunderstanding quickly and at the end of the evening, knowing just that he and his wife had been unable to make it work since the end of the war, she agreed to see him again. By April, he was taking too much of her time for her to know less than the truth, and he told her. She did not know how she felt about him, but she thought she had a right to know if he was determined not to divorce his wife. He said no, but inside, he was not certain. He was still attached to Karen and a part of him wanted to stay accessible to her. It was an exercise in vanity, for when they had been living together, she had not thought of him. She was miserable, and he kept thinking of it too often for it to be good for him. He liked this girl, but he was so used to Karen’s ways, her faults not excepted, that what was unique about the one only brought the other clearer to his mind. Anne’s virtues and accomplishments had no value to him, for while he was attracted and sometimes intrigued, because he was distracted, he was never in love. He knew it and, he thought, so did she.