Part 1, Storm In June: Chapters 29 and 30 Summary

Charlie Langelet is home with his porcelain unbroken. He has no servants, and the concierge is doing all the cleaning. He has a renewed sense of thrift, and knows his frozen assets will be valuable later. He realizes he loves nothing that death can take. He enjoys some good wine and heads to an elite bar where he had been a regular. The other old regulars all arrive, apparently unscathed by the war, and they pick up their shallow conversations like before. He is cheered by the sight of a small sable-skin hat worn by one of the women he plans to meet for dinner. Langelet goes home to get ready for dinner when a woman comes to his house looking for work as a maid. Her name is Hortense Gaillard (Hortense is...