Summary

“Chambers” begins in January, 1947. Eddie worked in “a small set of undistinguished Chambers” (229). He still had not received his inheritance and was living cheaply, doing a job he was not all that inspired by. One day, however, the Junior Clerk ran into Eddie’s office to tell him excitedly that he had a client, likely to bring him to Hong Kong. The case had been brought to him by a Chinese dwarf who had turned up in a Rolls Royce. Eddie ran out of the room, leaving the Clerk to scold him for his lack of gravitas. Eddie found Albert Loss in the Clerk’s room. Loss had a case for him. Eddie agreed, and asked after his old watch, which Ross replied had been “sacrificed in the avuncular search” (233). Loss asked if Eddie was met when his boat docked...