Chapter 27 Summary

One day just after Christmas, Arthur Springer telephones Reta. He tells her with his customary boisterous enthusiasm that her partial first draft of Thyme in Bloom is quite wonderful and that he had been up all night thinking about Alicia. Arthur once again is filled with admiration for Alicia's goodness. Reta interrupts him and tries to tell him that this is just the very point she is trying to work out. What is goodness? What is it's essence? And so on. But Arthur rushes on to his next subject: Roman. He thinks that Roman is an indescribable and complex character. He tells her that he has read all the reviews of her first novel, My Thyme is Up, and he continues to speak even though Reta tries to interrupt his flow of words.

Arthur wants Reta to come to New York as soon...