Chapters 7-12 Summary

Crabbe runs into Rose Waterford, who excitedly tells him that Charles Strickland has left his wife. She is happy to be presenting the newest and most exciting gossip, and hints that Strickland has run off with a young woman. Crabbe, feeling bad for his friend, goes over to her house, and finds her wiping away tears, talking with her brother-in-law, Colonel MacAndrew. Mrs. Strickland does some semblance of hospitality, then asks Crabbe what he has heard. He tells her that he knows that people say silly things, and that all he knows is that Rose told him that her husband has left her. MacAndrew angrily suggests that Mrs. Strickland should divorce her husband as soon as possible, and she says that she will never divorce him, no matter what. She is convinced that he has run off suddenly with another woman...