Chapter 17

An older man who was at the dinner followed him, and did not let him kill himself. Afterward the man found him a job on a newspaper, where things were difficult for him, at first, because so many people knew he’d been Lydia’s lover. But Geneva says no one remembers anything longer than a season in New York. After a while people forgot. Then he was put on Ship News, and he has been there ever since. He has been drunk more or less ever since too. Whenever Lydia sings, he gets a seat in the top gallery and listens to …