Summary: Chapter XXXIII
Henry gets off the train when it enters Milan. He goes
to a wine shop and has a cup of coffee. The proprietor offers to
help him, but Henry assures the man that he is in no trouble. After
they share a glass of wine, Henry goes to the hospital, where he
learns from the porter that Catherine has left for Stresa. He goes
to visit Ralph Simmons, one of the opera singers that he encounters
earlier, and asks about the procedures for traveling to Switzerland.
Simmons, offering whatever help he can, gives Henry a suit of civilian
clothes and sends him off to Stresa with best wishes.
Summary: Chapter XXXIV
Henry takes the train to Stresa. He feels odd in his new
clothes, noticing the scornful looks that he receives as a young
civilian. Still, he claims that such looks do not bother
him, for he has made a “separate peace” with the war. The train
arrives in Stresa, and Henry heads for a hotel called the Isles
Borromées. He takes a nice room and tells the concierge that he
is expecting his wife. In the bar, Emilio, the bartender, reports
that he has seen two English nurses staying at a small hotel near the
train station. Henry eats but does not answer Emilio’s questions about
the war, which, he reflects, is over for him.
Catherine and Helen Ferguson are having supper when Henry arrives
at their hotel. While Catherine is overjoyed, Helen becomes angry
and berates Henry for making such a mess of her friend’s life. Neither
Henry nor Catherine yields to Helen’s stern moralizing, and soon
Helen begins to cry. Henry describes the night spent with Catherine:
he has returned to a state of bliss, though his thoughts are darkened
by the knowledge that the “world breaks everyone” and that good
people die “impartially.”
In the morning, Henry refuses the newspaper, and Catherine
asks if his experience was so bad that he cannot bear to read about
it. He promises to tell her about it someday if he ever gets “it
straight in [his] head.” He admits to feeling like a criminal for
abandoning the army, but Catherine jokingly assures him that he
is no criminal: after all, she says, it was only the Italian army.
They agree that taking off for Switzerland would be lovely, and
return to bed.
Summary: Chapter XXXV
Later that morning, Catherine goes to see Helen, and Henry
goes fishing with Emilio. Emilio offers to lend Henry his boat at
any time. Henry and Catherine eat lunch with Helen Ferguson. Count
Greffi, a ninety-four-year-old nobleman whom Henry befriends on
an earlier trip to Stresa, is also at the hotel with his niece.
That evening, Henry plays billiards with the count. They talk about
how the count mistakenly thought religious devotion would come with
age and about whether Italy will win the war.
Summary: Chapter XXXVI
Later that night, Emilio wakes Henry to inform him that
the military police plan to arrest Henry in the morning. He suggests
that Henry and Catherine row to Switzerland. Henry wakes Catherine, and
they pack and head down to the dock. Emilio stocks them up with
brandy and sandwiches and lets them take the boat. He takes fifty
lire for the provisions and tells Henry to send him five hundred francs
for the boat after he is established in Switzerland.
