August 7, 1934

August 7, 1934, is the date of the final chapter’s turn from Beverly Hills to Reno, where an unexpected encounter changes the prospects for Georgiana’s mother’s divorce. The journey ends with the immediate crisis eased but the family’s return still unsettled: Georgiana parts from Darcy O’Mara, her mother prepares to leave America, and a divorce is promised only in the days ahead.

Date and Setting

The chapter is explicitly dated Tuesday, August 7, 1934, and headed “Beverly Hills and Then Reno.” Its structure makes the date a hinge between two places and two kinds of uncertainty. Before the move, Georgiana and Darcy face the possibility of separation without a settled plan for what she will do next. In Reno, Georgiana’s mother learns that Homer Clegg has arrived in person, bringing the possibility of a divorce that had seemed lost.

The family’s travel across America has also been marked by disputes over work and social rank. Georgiana employs Queenie for very little because she cannot afford another maid, and accepts that the arrangement suits them despite Queenie’s complaints and unconventional conduct. During the journey, Queenie objects to the deference expected of servants and invokes the American idea that people are equal; at the pool, she challenges the rule that a lady’s maid should not swim with her employers. These disagreements give the American setting a practical meaning: for Queenie, talk of equality bears directly on leisure and the limits of her job, while Georgiana and her mother continue to defend class distinctions.

The Journey to Reno

The immediate cause of the trip is a telegram from Reno reporting that Homer has appeared in person. Georgiana’s mother says they must leave at once. She has been afraid that his arrival will end her hopes of securing a divorce and marrying Max von Strohheim, so the news turns the journey into an urgent attempt to discover what Homer intends.

A hired car and driver carry them toward Reno. The route passes over mountains and by lakes and forests before reaching Nevada’s dry scrub and heat. Georgiana’s mother remains anxious throughout the drive, repeatedly wondering how Homer learned of her plans and fearing that he will refuse to divorce her. Her distress is bound up with the consequences she anticipates: without a divorce, Max cannot marry her, and the future she had imagined seems to have vanished. Georgiana waits in a small bungalow at a ranch while her mother goes to find Homer.

The Reversal in Reno

The feared confrontation produces an unexpected reversal. Georgiana’s mother returns to the bungalow joyful and says that Homer did not know she was in Reno. He has come there himself to obtain a quick divorce because he has found someone he wants to marry. His change of purpose removes the obstacle that had seemed decisive: he is no longer insisting on the marriage for the religious reasons that had previously stood in the way of divorce. Georgiana’s mother expects them to be divorced within a few days and therefore free to go home.

The outcome is a coincidence rather than a reunion between former spouses: both have arrived in Reno seeking a divorce, each for a new marriage. The day resolves the immediate uncertainty but does not show the divorce being completed. Its result remains prospective, expressed as a near-term expectation rather than a finished legal change.

Parting and the Return Home

The Reno news arrives as Georgiana and Darcy are already facing a parting. Darcy says he had better go and expects to see her when she is back in England. Georgiana cannot promise where she will be; she does not want to return to Castle Rannoch, while her mother expects to go back to Max. Their exchange leaves Georgiana’s own future open even as her mother’s marital prospects improve.

Georgiana asks whether they are expected at Cy Goldman’s funeral. Her mother dismisses the obligation, reasoning that the gathering will be so large that their absence will not be noticed and that they were not close friends. She also says she has had enough of America and wants to return home, where she can escape what she calls its ideas of equality and buy a decent face cream. The dismissal contrasts the gravity of the divorce crisis with her brisk return to familiar preferences and social attitudes. August 7 thus closes the American episode on a double movement: a practical path toward freedom from an unwanted marriage opens for Georgiana’s mother, while Georgiana leaves her own destination—and her relationship with Darcy—unresolved.