an argument that ends in an unusual manner with him spanking her like a child. Thereafter however, she lies in his arms and they get to know one another. The tugboat comes and frees the marooned yacht and everyone, including Gordon, spends the evening dancing. Mr. Talliaferro fall victim to a trick by Fairchild and Julius that leads him into a room which he thinks is Jenny's room but is in fact the room of Mrs. Maurier, to whom he is now apparently engaged. Epilogue The epilogue follows the Nausikaa's passengers onto land and back into their individual lives, tying up many loose ends. Jenny and Pete return to their families. Major Ayers attends a meeting to propose an invention of digestive salts continually mentioned throughout the story. Mark Frost and Mrs. Jameson, the two unimaginative artists, find love in each other and begin a relationship. Gordon, Julius, and Fairchild have one last discussion of art and Gordon reveals that he has shifted from working with marble to clay and has molded from it a likeness Mrs. Maurier, much departed from his prior artistic obsession with representing the young female nude that he worked on in the beginning of the book. In the last section, Mr. Talliaferro visits Fairchild, distressed again by his ineptitude with women. After returning home, Talliaferro comes to what he thinks is a revelation regarding how he can be more successful with women. The novel ends as he tries to call Fairchild, but on the other end is only the operator, who says sarcastically "You tell 'em, big boy; treat 'em rough." Characters Main Characters Ernest Talliaferro is a 38-year-old widower of eight years who is entrenched in the New Orleans artistic community, yet is not an artist himself. His entire persona is a calculated construction, having changed his name from "Tarver" and even speaking with an affected cockney that he picked up once on a brief trip to Europe. He works as a wholesale buyer of women's clothes, a profession that leads him to believe he has a honed knowledge of women's wants and needs. Ever unsure of himself and his abilities with the opposite sex, however, he spends much of the book talking about or comically attempting to foster relations that never come to fruition. Gordon is a tall, muscular, arrogant, and often socially disconnected sculptor who is dedicated to none but his work.