A Passage to India Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary

  • Fielding goes off to see McBryde about the case. McBryde tells Fielding that Miss Derek and Adela arrived at his home. McBryde took down Adela's charge and made up an arrest warrant for Aziz. Aziz's home was searched, and his letters and photographs brought to the police station.
  • McBryde tells Fielding that in his letters, Aziz was making up plans to see prostitutes. Fielding says that he was doing the same thing at Aziz's age. McBryde was too, but he doesn't admit it to Fielding.
  • Fielding wants to visit Adela, but McBryde insists she is too ill.
  • Fielding asks to see Aziz, but McBryde is reluctant. He believes that when the Indians see a European, (i.e., Fielding, taking sides with Aziz), it will embolden them and weaken the case against Aziz. Fielding insists, but when he tells McBryde about his conversation with Turton, McBryde refuses to let Fielding see Aziz without a magistrate's order.
  • Fielding points out that the photographs taken from Aziz's home are actually photographs of Aziz's dead wife, a notion that McBryde rejects. McBryde asks Fielding to leave.