The Garden of Eden

When they return to their rooms, the owner of the house compliments David and Catherine on their haircuts. David buys a bottle of champagne and takes it to the bedroom. Catherine and David have sex. Later, David examines his new haircut in the mirror and tells himself that he likes it. He tells himself to “go through with the rest of it whatever it is and don’t ever say anyone tempted you” (62). Later, David and Catherine eat dinner on the terrace. As they talk, Catherine addresses David as “girl” and tells him that she is happy (63).

The next day, they drive to Cannes. Catherine suggests that they go to a café to show off their matching hairstyles, and David reluctantly agrees. In the café, they sip alcohol and watch two women argue. The more beautiful of the two approaches Catherine and David to apologize for the spectacle; they invite her to sit with them. The woman asks where they had their hair cut. She introduces her friend Nina but does not give her name. After the two women depart, Catherine and David talk about the experience. They dislike Nina but the anonymous woman intrigues them. They return to their car and drive back to their room.

David works on a short story that has occupied his thoughts for the past week. He believes that the story has also been in his dreams. Although he worries about interrupting his longer project, he feels compelled to write this story, which he fears will slip from his mind. After he finishes, he goes to the café to eat breakfast.

David reads a note from Catherine which explains that she has gone shopping and that she will meet him for lunch. David talks to the owner of the building about the weather and reads a book while waiting for her to return. He realizes that he misses Catherine and drinks whiskey while he waits. Catherine appears with a present: a special edition of the book he is reading. She is accompanied by the woman from the café in Cannes, who has had her hair cut in the same style as Catherine and David. The girl’s name is Marita, and she explains that her friend Nina has “gone away” (70). As they eat lunch, Catherine invites Marita to take one of their rooms in the hotel. Marita is reluctant but agrees, hoping that she can find a way to make herself useful.

When David takes Marita to retrieve her car from Cannes, Marita thanks him for inviting her to stay with them. She loves Catherine, she explains, and she loves David, too. She senses that David likes her, but he tells her that they are just riding in the same car together. Later, Catherine meets David in their bedroom after settling Marita into her room. As Catherine talks, David has an outburst, asking “who is this girl anyway” (72). Catherine tries to soothe his anger, explaining that she wanted a companion while he works. They agree to invite Marita to the beach, but David regrets that he will have to wear a bathing suit. Later when the three are together, Catherine mentions swimming without a suit. Marita is happy to swim nude, so long as David does not mind.

That evening, they drink together in the hotel bar. Marita flirts with David as they wait for Catherine to change her clothes. David dismisses Marita’s claim that she has fallen in love with the married couple. Catherine arrives and tells David that he has two girls now and that he should “stop acting stuffy and be nice” (74). On Catherine’s instruction, David kisses Marita. She begins to cry. Catherine comforts Marita and also kisses her. Marita apologizes and then excuses herself. After she is gone, David and Catherine joke about their situation. David wishes they were alone, and Catherine admits that she encouraged Marita. Shortly afterward, Marita returns. She apologizes and blushes, then kisses David “on the mouth very quickly” (75). Marita promises that she can be both Catherine and David’s girl; Catherine becomes embarrassed and admits that she has never been with a girl. Later, David admits that he wishes they had never met Marita. Catherine suggests that they “maybe go through with it and get rid of it that way” (76).

From his writing room, David spots Catherine and Marita but he is too absorbed in his writing to pay attention to them. After finishing his short story, he is pleased with the results and thinks about drinking a beer. However, he does not like the beer in this region. The idea of Marita and Catherine driving to Nice fills him with sudden envy. In need of a distraction, he returns to his writing. He decides to work on “the new story that he had always put off writing” (78).

Later, David sips whiskey on the hotel terrace. Catherine and Marita return and join him. They seem “as happy and as gay as yesterday” (78). Catherine mentions how her slacks caused a minor scandal in Nice. She says that, on the way to Nice and on the way back, she kissed Marita, and she liked it. Marita kisses David until Catherine says “that’s enough” (80). Marita says she has read David’s book about growing up in East Africa, something which Catherine has not done. Catherine plans to take a nap and then visit Marita in the afternoon.

Catherine and David lay in bed together. Catherine tells David about kissing Marita and the excitement she felt. David asks whether this means that Catherine is now “through with it” (82). Catherine says she is not finished. She believes that she needs to explore her sexuality with Marita. David does not offer his approval but instead announces a plan to go to Paris. Catherine pleads with him to stay with her. Catherine leaves David and goes to see Marita. When she returns, David is not in the room. Catherine stares at the bed and then stares at herself in the mirror. Her face has “no expression” (82).

After a trip to Cannes, David drives back to the hotel. Marita greets him. She asks him to “please be kind” (83) to Catherine. When David sees Catherine in the bar, he is surprised by the lack of expression on her face. She worries that she has harmed their relationship someway. David makes her cocktails, and she drinks them in quick succession. She confesses that she thought he had driven to Paris and left her behind. As David mixes himself a drink, he assures Catherine that they are still the couple they once were. As Catherine drinks, she tells David that her affair with Marita does not count as infidelity, but she wishes that David was the person who had slept with Marita, rather than her, as that would allow her to forgive him. Catherine brings Marita into the bar to share a cocktail with them. She praises Marita and says that their sexual experience was very pleasurable. David cheerfully tries to change the subject, saying that “perversion’s dull and old fashioned” (84). David gives Marita the nickname Heiress (85) but declines to kiss her again. When Catherine goes to fetch a present Marita bought for David, he suggests that it would be better if Marita left. She kisses him as Catherine returns to the room with a tin of caviar. She is relieved that the waiter saw Marita kiss David as “there’s no longer any fear of scandal or anything” (86).

David sleeps only two hours during the night. He wakes and leaves Catherine in bed. He works on his story and, when he is done, finds Catherine and Marita playing chess in the hotel garden. Noticing how beautiful they seem together, he wonders about the day ahead. Catherine nominates Marita to be the “wife of the day” (87) and instructs her to prepare food for David. Marita brings more caviar and champagne. Later, they go to the beach and swim nude together. Catherine retires to bed after lunch and, while she sleeps, David mentions to Marita that his office and her bedroom share a door. He notes that there are locks on either side.

David goes to his writing room and unlocks the door to Marita’s bedroom. He waits to see whether she will unlock the door from her side as well. She does, and they sit together on the bed. Marita says that David can kiss her, but she does not want to have sex with him. Later, David and Marita drink together in the bar. She tells him that she does not want to “make trouble” (89). When Marita checks on Catherine, David sips Marita’s drink, and “it gave him pleasure because it was hers” (90). He tells himself that he can be in love with both women and thinks about how much he has changed in recent months. He reminds himself to focus on his work. Marita returns and, as she shares another drink with David, he tells her that he loves her.

David is surprised to hear Catherine’s car while he writes. He is surprised by how invested he was in his story about his childhood in East Africa and his father. After he is finished with his writing, he meets the hotel owner’s wife, who tells him that Catherine and Marita have driven to Nice. David chats with the woman, flirting a little and eating caviar. He asks her to pass along a message to the women that–if they return before him–he has gone to the beach. As David rides his bicycle to the beach, he thinks about how much he misses Catherine and Marita. He is “lonely for them both” (93). Even though he feels immoral to love two women, he cannot help himself.

David returns from the beach to find Catherine and Marita are still away. David drinks a cocktail and, when they return, “Catherine was very gay and excited and the girl was contrite and very quiet” (94). Catherine explains that they drank a cocktail with the hairdresser Jean in Cannes. However, she complains that she is “tired of everybody” (95) and feels as though Marita has been cold toward her. Marita apologizes. After lunch, Catherine goes to bed. She worries that she has had too much to drink. As she lays on the bed, she apologizes to David for lying about how many drinks she had.

Later, they return to the beach. David tells Marita that her car has many issues and that he plans to fix it soon. In the sea, David kisses Marita. Then, Marita returns to lay on the beach and David swims with Catherine. She mentions how wonderful their lives would be “if I wasn’t crazy” (97). David assures her that she is not and, before returning to the shore, they dive into the deep part of the sea.

David rises early and begins to write about his childhood again. By mid-morning, he leaves the story at a certain point and locks away his writing materials. Marita is outside in the garden, reading a book, while Catherine has taken the car into Cannes. Before leaving, Catherine told Maria to take David to the beach. After they eat breakfast, David and Marita go to the beach and kiss in the water. 

Later, Marita admits to David that she does not like the nickname Heiress. He offers instead to call her Haya, which means the one who blushes. He says that it can be “a small name between us. For nobody else ever” (101). When Catherine returns from Cannes, her hair has been bleached even lighter than previously and “almost white” (102). As they eat lunch, Catherine insists on drinking cocktails. She feels the need to sleep after lunch and, while she naps, David and Marita go to the beach, where they have sex for the first time. They return to find Catherine sober and regretful. She insists that she is giving up alcohol. She plans to study Spanish, read more books, and stop thinking only about herself. That evening, Catherine jokes about David also marrying Marita. Marita agrees to marry David if she can. Catherine continues to push the subject, and David realizes that she is being serious. Catherine says that she wants “Marita to be [David’s] wife too to help me out and then she inherits from me” (104). She insists that they will work everything out.