Summary

Chapter 9 continues the pattern set-up in the previous chapters, with parallel accounts of Claudia’s two trips to Cairo, the first as a young war correspondent and the second as an elderly tourist. The bulk of the chapter is devoted to the former. Claudia is racked with fear and anticipation in Tom’s absence. She longs to experience what he is experiencing and so she attempts to get back to the desert, but she is not granted permission by the British military and she must remain in urban areas. She goes to Jerusalem hoping to interview Charles de Gaulle, but does not encounter him there. When Claudia and Tom reunite, Claudia asks Tom once again what he plans to do after the war. He tells her previously, he intended to return to England and run for Parliament as an act of sheer social idealism. Now, however...