Elphinstone

Elphinstone is the remote mountain town in a western state where Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze stop during their second cross-country journey, and where Lolita falls seriously ill, is hospitalized, and is abducted from the hospital by Clare Quilty, marking the definitive end of Humbert's possession of her.

Location and Setting

Elphinstone is a newly built or rebuilt town situated on the flat floor of a seven-thousand-foot-high valley, surrounded by mountains. Humbert describes it as a "very cute little town" spread like a maquette, with neat green-wool trees and red-roofed houses over the valley floor, a model school and temple, and spacious rectangular blocks, some of which were unconventional pastures with a mule or a unicorn grazing in the July morning mist. The town is dominated by a famous, oddly shaped, splendidly flushed rock which jutted above the mountains and had been the takeoff for nirvana on the part of a temperamental show girl. The air is luminous and crisp. The Silver Spur Court, a motor court run by a brisk, rouged, blue-eyed widow named Mrs. Hays, is where Humbert and Lolita take a two-room cabin of the glossily browned pine-log kind that Lolita used to be fond of during their first journey.

Lolita's Illness and Hospitalization

Upon entering the cabin at Silver Spur Court, Lolita sits down at a card table, buries her face in the crook of her arm, and says she feels awful. Humbert initially suspects she is shamming to evade his caresses, but she begins to whimper in an unusually dreary way. He takes her temperature orally and, after converting Fahrenheit to centigrade, finds she has 40.4 degrees. Upon examining her uvula, he sees it is a burning red. She complains of a painful stiffness in the upper vertebrae, and Humbert thinks of poliomyelitis. He wraps her in a laprobe and carries her to the car. Kind Mrs. Hays alerts the local doctor, Dr. Blue, who is reputed to be the best man in the district. The Elphinstone hospital is described as modern despite its limited capacity. Humbert drives Lolita there, half-blinded by a royal sunset, guided by a little old woman whom Mrs. Hays has lent him. Dr. Blue assures Humbert it is a virus infection, and Humbert gives Lolita's age as "practically sixteen" to an unsmiling blond secretary. He is not allowed to stay overnight and returns to the motel, stunned by his new solitude.

Lolita's Abduction and Humbert's Collapse

Lolita responds well to treatment and is much better within a couple of days. During Humbert's visits, he notices a crumpled envelope from "Ponderosa Lodge" on her breakfast tray, and the nurse, Mary Lore, warns him not to touch it. Humbert falls ill himself, shivering, boozing, and dying in the motel bed. He sends Lolita's bags to the hospital with a robust and kindly trucker named Frank. When Humbert finally calls the hospital, a bright voice informs him that his daughter had checked out the day before, around two, her uncle, Mr. Gustave, had called for her with a cocker spaniel pup and a smile for everyone, and a black Cadillac, and had paid Dolly's bill in cash, and told them to tell Humbert he should not worry, they were at Grandpa's ranch as agreed. Humbert, in a state of delirium, goes to the hospital, tries to beat up the doctor, and roars at people. He is eventually given a receipt for Lolita's belongings, and he realizes he has surrendered his Lolita to all those apes. The town of Elphinstone thus becomes the site of Humbert's definitive loss, the place where his control over Lolita is finally and irrevocably broken by Clare Quilty's intervention.