Part 3, Chapter 31 Summary

Laura goes home for the July 4th celebration and writes him a letter telling him that she and the man she has been engaged to for a year are going to run away and get married. Eugene is devastated. At the prodding of Eliza, he writes a letter to Laura that is boastful and full of Latin, Greek, and English verse and is embarrassed the minute he sends it. To make matters worse, everyone is making fun of him for having lost his girl. Then he begins to spend time with a prostitute at the boarding house, a Miss Smith.

Ben has been rejected for the army because his lungs are weak. He doesn't have tuberculosis, says Dr. McGuire; he just has a weakness. Luke has enlisted in the Navy. Gant's illness has advanced, and Helen and Ben will go with...