Tender is the Night Book One, Chapter Twenty-Two Summary

  • Nicole wakes up to someone knocking.
  • Apparently Abe is back in town and was allegedly robbed by "a N***o," who has been arrested. But there’s another black man, Freeman, in the lock-up who isn’t the one who robbed Abe, but was arrested in connection with the incident.
  • Nicole tells the cop that she doesn’t have any information.
  • Nicole leaves and runs into Rosemary and they go shopping together.
  • When they get back, Dick is happy and excited. He talked to Abe, who flew back into town, and a bunch of other people, but has no plans to get Freeman out of the clink.
  • Nicole reminisces about how "nice" Abe used to be.
  • Rosemary wants to know whose fault it is – who drove him to drink.
  • Nicole and Dick ponder why "so many smart men go to pieces nowadays." Nicole wants to know why it’s always Americans who go down.
  • Dick is aware that he’s less understanding of Nicole now. He acts as if steeling himself for some attack from her, and he hopes she doesn’t think Rosemary meant something to him.
  • The three go down for lunch, and there is an odd group, that Dick wants to make fun of but stops himself. He finds out from the waiter that they are "gold star muzzers" which are mother of dead American soldiers that fought abroad. Rosemary gets sad.
  • Dick looks from them back to Nicole and Rosemary, and realized his life has changed. Then he imagines Rosemary in the train with Hillis again.