Annie discovered from Paul Lavan, whom she saw now and then at party meetings, that Walter was still living in their old room. She wrote him a stiff little note suggesting that he might like a divorce, there didn’t seem any point…A few nights later as she was reading in bed, she heard a car idling outside on the street. She went to the window. It was their old car and Walter was sitting in it, smoking a cigarette. She put on her new bathrobe and went out the door to the car.

They drove around the Hollywood Hills. He was a little drunk. He rambled somewhat. He was going back into the merchant marine. Was Annie serious about a divorce? He thought they’d started off on the wrong foot, the cart before the horse. He could see she’d changed. Yes, that was clear to him. He felt those things instantly. Did she know that when he’d been a boy, he’d gone up into the San Francisco hills and wept? What did she think of that? He’d wept for the beauty of things and the hopelessness of life. That was a nice bathrobe. She looked well in mannish clothes because of her lovely figure. Actually, they’d be fine together now, he thought. They’d both probably got a lot out of their systems. Would she like to go to the beach awhile?

They went and sat on the sand at Santa Monica. The dawn began to break. It was chilly. Thank God for the chilliness, she thought. She’d forgotten what real weather was like. The gray waves beat hugely on the shore. Walter put his arms around her. No, she said. He laughed his ironic laugh, his only possession, she thought, of any consequence. “You’ll go up and I’ll go down,” he said. “It’s in the cards.”

He drove back to their old place and got out of the car, then flung the key onto Annie’s lap. “You ought to get something out of all this,” he said. “I’ll mail you the registration, all that. Too sad now, Annie…” She watched him stumble up the stairs. When he’d disappeared from view, she started up the car and drove back to Oxford Street, singing wildly and tunelessly to herself all the way.

Mrs. Ives was looking out the front window. It was 6:00 A.M.