Tender is the Night Book Two, Chapter Twenty-Two Summary

  • That evening Dick and Collis are getting drunk and Dick is irritated and talking trash about the Italians. Collis likes Italy and the people. For Dick, it’s the end of his "dream" of Rosemary.
  • A note from Rosemary is delivered to him, asking him to come up. He tips the bellboy and says to tell her the message was undelivered. He and Collis wander around and then get a cab.
  • In the cab, Dick again complains about Italians and Collis again defends them.
  • They arrive at a new party spot and Dick and Collis drink. Dick gets in a fight with a black man from the band and then dances with an English girl.
  • Dick is irritable and rude with Collis, but they leave nicely. Dick does some more drinking and some more dancing, and then the girl is suddenly nowhere to be found.
  • He’s slurring, staggering drunk and almost goes into the women’s bathroom, and then thinks he might have knocked something down around the bar area.
  • He gets some coffee and realizes he’s alone and decides to go back to his hotel.
  • He goes out to hail a cab, and starts arguing with the drivers over the fare. He ends up slapping one of them and scuffling with the all the cab drivers until he trips and falls but tries to keep fighting.
  • Finally they decide to settle it with the police and Dick is led to appear before the captain.
  • The captain asks if he speaks French and when he says he does the captain starts yelling at him. The captain basically lets him off – he just wants him to leave.
  • Dick is "raging with humiliation," but agrees to leave. But on the way out, he punches the guy who led him to the station, and who seems to be a cop.
  • So then they start clubbing him, break his nose, stomp on his ribs. He passes out, revives, gets handcuffed, and "smashed to the floor" by the guy he punched.
  • They throw water on him to keep him from passing out, and then drag him off.
  • As they drag him, he recognizes a cab driver and yells for him to go get Baby at the Excelsior, for 200 lire. Then he gets tossed in a cell.