Summary

In Book III, “Of Pilgrims, Self-Centered Bitches (Peregrine Women?), and Hard Nuts,” Chapter 58, while Catherine naps on the terrace, Ernest and Amanda “go for a walk” (167). He tells Amanda she is still a stranger to him after all these years. On the beach, they talk about entrapment and the future. Amanda falls asleep. When Ernest wakes her, she panics. Amanda thinks he calls her a pilgrim, but he calls her a peregrine, a bird “that never stays in one place” (168). They move to leave, and Amanda struggles to stand. At home, Amanda explains where they were. Catherine tells Amanda she wants to go “back to the States” (169). Amanda challenges this plan, but Catherine insists nowhere is paradise, because she is the worm and Ernest is the apple (169, 170).

In Chapter 59, no matter how tender Ernest is with Catherine, “she shrinks from him” (171). While...