Strangers On A Train

Guy walks home and is comforted by emotionally distancing himself from Miriam. He is greeted by his mother, from whom he also feels an emotional distance: "he thought of the gulf that separated his life from his mother's" (42). This emotional gulf is in part due to the contrast between her cheerful disposition and Guy’s, who prefers to “nurse his griefs" (41). He tells her he will not take the Palmyra job and is glad that she doesn't know how important it really is. Guy contemplates with "revulsion" the notion of Miriam accompanying him to the Palmyra Club, as she suggested. His thoughts leap from Miriam to Anne, who he tells his mother he will visit in Mexico. His mother muses that she thinks Guy is "happy again" (44).

Anne telegrams Guy, urging him to tell her what is going on, to come to Mexico, and telling him that she is proud of him for taking on the Palmyra job. Guy responds, not to Anne, but to the Palmyra Club owner, Clarence Brillhart, informing him that he cannot take the commission. Then he calls Anne and tells her that he will fly down to see her. The thought of Anne helps Guy overcome his reflection that it will be a long time before he again lands a job as big as the Palmyra.