Chapters 36, 37, 38, and 39 Summary

Carol's dissatisfaction reaches a point of no foreseeable resolution. She leaves Kennicott and takes Hugh with her to Washington, D.C., where the two of them live for almost two years. Carol finds employment in the Bureau of War Risk Insurance a few weeks before the end of World War I. For the first month, Carol and Hugh live in a rooming house. Ultimately, Carol finds a flat, which she and Hugh share with two other women.

Carol eventually finds her job of filing and dictation to be tedious and unsatisfying. At least it is different from her life in Gopher Prairie, and she does have her weekends free to discover the city. The greatest pleasure for Carol is the freedom she enjoys to attend concerts and lectures and eat at different restaurants.

One night, while the credits for a movie...