Berkeley becomes the setting for an outing that changes Steve Maryk’s understanding of Tom Keefer. A rainstorm displaces their possible walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and brings them instead to a literary gathering, where Keefer’s standing as a writer is revealed before an audience—and before Maryk himself.

The Change of Plan

Rain begins while the two officers are together, putting an end to the proposed walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Keefer proposes Berkeley as an alternative, explaining that he has arranged to visit an English professor he contacted that morning. The professor has invited them to a literary tea; Keefer adds that the club is largely made up of women. Maryk is willing to try the outing, though it will mean listening to Keefer speak about the novel in World War II.

The change of destination also changes the character of their afternoon. What begins as a casual plan becomes an occasion organized around Keefer’s literary interests. Berkeley gives him a ready-made audience and a role Maryk has not seen him occupy aboard ship.

Keefer’s Public Introduction

Professor Curran leads the officers into a reception room filled with college students. Their arrival in uniform draws attention, and Curran introduces Keefer at length as a promising American writer. He cites Keefer’s published stories and verses and mentions that his play, The Amaranthine Weed, has been held under option by the Theatre Guild. Keefer’s accomplishments, presented as a public résumé, are news to Maryk: Keefer had not discussed his writing with him aboard ship.

Keefer then speaks for half an hour on the novel in World War II. The audience listens closely, but Maryk cannot follow the literary references and recognizes only Hemingway among the writers named. The gathering thus exposes a divide between Keefer’s cultivated public identity and Maryk’s limited familiarity with literary culture. Maryk’s surprise is sharpened by the realization that he had joined the wardroom’s coarse jokes about Keefer’s novel without knowing the seriousness of his writing career.

Maryk’s Discomfort and the Interrupted Visit

After the talk, the students gather around Keefer, while Maryk is left speaking awkwardly with a couple of attendees whose questions chiefly concern Keefer. He wonders whether the afternoon has confirmed his fear that his own ignorance will keep him from speaking naturally with Keefer again. Berkeley’s literary gathering has not simply displayed Keefer’s achievement; it has left Maryk feeling excluded from a subject central to his shipmate’s life.

Keefer eventually leaves with two of the women for dinner at a French restaurant overlooking the bay. Maryk, meanwhile, makes the routine eight o’clock check by telephoning the ship’s office. He returns to the table with the news that they are wanted back aboard, abruptly ending the outing. The social visit therefore closes on two contrasts: Keefer has been publicly recognized as a writer, while Maryk has been made acutely conscious of what he does not know; and the evening’s literary and social interlude remains subject to the ship’s demands.