CHAPTER 22

Summary

Next day was very cold, and it started raining. Henry had felt sick in the night and felt nauseous in the morning after breakfast. Miss Gage and the house surgeon examined him and found him suffering from jaundice. Thus, Catherine and Henry could not go to Pallanza on Lago Maggiore as they had planned and spent the convalescent leave together. He suffered from jaundice for two weeks.

One day, Miss Van Campen came into his room and searched the closet. She found a lot of empty bottles of alcohol. She was enraged and her pity for him having jaundice disappeared. She believed that his jaundice was due to alcoholism and so she said that he was not entitled to the convalescent leave. She threatened to report the matter to the authorities and translated her threat into action. Consequently, Henry lost his leave. Miss Van Campen believed that Henry actually inflicted wounds on himself to escape the front.

Notes

Henry might have had jaundice due to a hospital infection, but Miss Van Campen chose to believe that it was self-inflicted. HenryÂ’s rather caustic dialogue with her infuriated her and she saw to it that his leave was cancelled. As a result, Henry went to the front.

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