Lolita's illness and disappearance

Lolita's sudden illness in the mountain town of Elphinstone and her subsequent disappearance from the hospital marks the decisive rupture of Humbert Humbert's control, the end of their cross-country journey, and the beginning of his obsessive, years-long search. The event reveals the depth of her secret collusion with Clare Quilty and exposes the fragility of the entire edifice of possession Humbert had constructed.

Causes and Background

By the time Humbert and Lolita reached Elphinstone in late June 1948, their year-long odyssey across the United States had become a grotesque parody of a family vacation. Humbert was increasingly paranoid, convinced he was being followed by a red convertible and its driver, a man he alternately called Trapp or a detective. Lolita, now fourteen, had grown sullen and evasive, her earlier compliance replaced by a simmering resentment that Humbert tried to manage with bribes, threats, and the constant promise of the next destination. The tension had been building for weeks, ever since the fake telephone call at Champion, Colorado, and the appearance of the mysterious man on the tennis court. Elphinstone, a newly built town on the floor of a seven-thousand-foot-high valley, was meant to be a brief stop before they pushed on to California and Mexico. Instead, it became the site of the final unraveling.

What Happens

Upon arriving at the Silver Spur Court motel, run by a brisk, blue-eyed widow named Mrs. Hays, Lolita complained of feeling ill. Humbert, initially suspecting she was feigning sickness to avoid his advances, found her skin scalding hot and her temperature, when he converted it from Fahrenheit to the centigrade of his childhood, registered 40.4 degrees. Her uvula was a burning red, her breath bittersweet, and she complained of a painful stiffness in her upper vertebrae, prompting Humbert to fear poliomyelitis. He wrapped her in a lap robe and drove her to the Elphinstone hospital, which was as modern as its limited capacity allowed. Dr. Blue diagnosed a virus infection, curtly dismissing Humbert's mention of a recent flu as a different bug. Humbert, drunk and desperate, gave Lolita's age as "practically sixteen" to an unsmiling blonde secretary. He was then forcibly separated from her, denied permission to spend the night in the hospital, and left to wander the dark streets in a state of stunned solitude. He returned to the motel at three in the morning, lay on her bed that smelled of chestnuts, roses, peppermint, and her French perfume, and found himself unable to accept that for the first time in two years he was apart from her. Over the next several days, Humbert visited Lolita eight times. On his last visit, he brought a bouquet of wild flowers and a load of books, including Browning's Dramatic Works and a history of dancing. In the corridor, he noticed a crumpled envelope on her breakfast tray, bearing a phony armorial design with "Ponderosa Lodge" in green letters. The nurse, Mary Lore, warned him not to touch it, saying it could burn his fingers. Inside the room, Lolita, rosy and russet with freshly painted lips, lay in bed, her topaz ring burning in the sun. She dismissed his flowers as "gruesome funeral flowers" and asked him to stop speaking French. Mary Lore, reeking of urine and garlic, returned with the Desert News, which Lolita eagerly accepted, ignoring the books Humbert had brought. Mary then volunteered that her sister Ann worked at the Ponderosa place. Humbert, feeling that the two girls were conspirators plotting against him, stood at the window and stared at the mountains. Lolita, calling him "my Carmen," told him she wanted all her clothes. When Humbert said there was no point in staying, she replied, "There is no point in staying anywhere." The next morning, Humbert was too ill with fever himself to visit her. He sent the two bags over with the widow's beau, a robust trucker named Frank. Later that day, Frank returned with a message from Mary Lore, asking if Humbert would come. Humbert, still sick and drinking, said he would stay in bed. The following morning, he walked to the office telephone and was told that his daughter had checked out the day before, around two o'clock. 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 her bill in cash, telling them to tell Humbert not to worry and to keep warm, that they were at Grandpa's ranch as agreed.

Consequences and Aftermath

The immediate consequence was Humbert's complete mental and physical collapse. He drove to the hospital in a drunken rage, attempted to beat up Dr. Blue, and was restrained by staff. He signed a receipt for Lolita's belongings, including the beautifully folded tartan lap robe and seven books, and was confronted by a policeman. Feigning a daze, he apologized, paid off a motorist he had sideswiped, and left, whispering to himself that he still had his gun and was free to trace the fugitive and destroy his brother. The disappearance triggered a massive, obsessive search that consumed the next three years. Humbert retraced their route, registering at 342 hotels, motels, and tourist homes between July 5 and November 18, searching for clues in guest registers. He discovered that the man he called the fiend had left a trail of pseudonyms, including "Dr. Gratiano Forbeson, Mirandola, NY" at the Ponderosa Lodge, and that Lolita had been in contact with him throughout the journey. The event also marked the end of Humbert's life as he knew it. He spent the winter and spring in a Quebec sanatorium, then drifted into a two-year relationship with Rita, a kind but alcoholic woman, while continuing to search. The loss of Lolita, and the knowledge that she had willingly left him for another man, transformed his obsession from possession to a desperate, hopeless love that would culminate in his final visit to her in Coalmont and the murder of Clare Quilty.