Part 1, Chapters 1-5 Summary
Waiting for Sunrise begins on a clear day in Vienna in 1913. Lysander Ulrich Rief is an Englishman who has given up his future plans and has invested his savings in a move to Vienna. Lysander has come to see Dr. J. Bensimon, a psychoanalyst trained by Sigmund Freud. In his rush and anxiety to meet with Bensimon for the first time, Lysander forgets his boater hat on a park bench. Instead of returning to retrieve it, he carries on to his appointment. Along the way, he sees a poster of a woman, barely clothed. He cannot make out what she is doing because the poster has been torn down, presumably due to its indecency. Lysander wonders what it might have been about and speculates that it might be related to some Greek myth.
At Dr. Bensimon’s office, he meets Miss Bull, an Englishwoman. She asks Lysander for a cigarette and takes two from him. When Bensimon and a man exit the doctor’s office, Miss Bull “barges” the queue to see the doctor. Alwyn Munro introduces himself and suggests that he and Lysander might have met before, as the latter looks so familiar. When Lysander mentions that Bull cadged two of his cigarettes, Munro warns him that she looks dangerous.
During the session, Bensimon sits behind Lysander. The young Englishman explains that he cannot achieve orgasm during sex, which the doctor diagnoses as anorgasmia. Lysander is the first person to see Bensimon with this problem. Bensimon tells Lysander to begin keeping a journal, which will allow the doctor an entry into Lysander’s mind. Lysander walks to a shop called WKM, where he buys a small guidebook that he intends to title “Autobiographical Investigations.” He meets Miss Bull again, who introduces herself as Hettie before claiming that Lysander looks familiar to her. She explains that she is staying with Udo Hoff, the painter, and asks for Lysander’s address so that she can invite him to one of her parties.
Lysander returns to the room he is renting at the Pension Kriwanek. He is taking German lessons with Herr Barth, a musician who also boards at the pension. Barth has paid for breakfast but not supper, and he leaves when the dinner bell is rung. Lysander appears for dinner promptly, which pleases Frau Kriwanek (Frau K), a forty-year-old widow who runs the pension. A place is set for Lieutenant Wolfram Rozman, who is also staying at the pension; however, the lieutenant is absent. The serving girl, Traudl, spills soup on the tablecloth, the cleaning of which will come from Traudl’s pay. After supper, Wolfram returns, asks Traudl to bring him bread and cheese, and informs Lysander that Traudl will sleep with the boarders for twenty crowns. When Lysander expresses surprise that such things could happen in Frau K’s pension, Wolfram explains that the pension is just like Austria: it is proper on the surface but underneath runs a “river of sex.”
Part 1, Chapters 6-10 Summary
Lysander’s sessions with Bensimon continue. He shares that his father was Halifax Rief, the acclaimed actor. It impresses Bensimon, who loves the theater. His mother, Anneliese (Anna), is Austrian. After Lysander’s father died, she married Lord Crickmay Faulkner, a man more than twenty years her senior. Bensimon is curious whether Lysander feels any sexual attraction for his mother, which Lysander finds ridiculous. Lysander shares a recurring dream with Bensimon in which he is in a theater, naked, surrounded by clothed women, though he cannot explain its meaning.
Back at the pension, Wolfram emerges from his room in full regalia. He explains that today is to be...
(This entire section contains 527 words.)
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his tribunal. He is being tried because he was one of twelve men in charge of a locked box that was used to collect funds from the regiment. The funds were to be used to give their colonel a retirement gift. However, at the end of the three months' collection, the soldiers discovered that someone had stolen the money. Wolfram claims he is suspected because he is a Slovene; only the Austrians and Hungarians have real power and status in the empire. Lysander encourages Wolfram to believe in his innocence and shares his whiskey with the lieutenant. Wolfram explains that if the trial goes badly, he may have to commit suicide. As Wolfram leaves, he tells Lysander that “no human being is entirely innocent,” which impresses the young Englishman. After Wolfram leaves, Traudl arrives to pleasure Lysander, explaining that the lieutenant gave her twenty crowns. Lysander declines her offer.
Lysander is engaged to be married, and he receives a letter from his fiancée, Blanche Blondel, an actress, which he reads in the Café Central. She has been with other men, but Lysander has taken care to be honorable. When he leaves the café, he runs into Alwyn Munro. Munro claims that he is a friend of Bensimon rather than a patient. He is a military attaché with the rank of captain, staying at the embassy, and he gives Lysander his card.
Lysander is not interested in visiting with Munro because he is focused on curing his anorgasmia so that he can return to his fiancé. He resolves to tell Dr. Bensimon his deepest secret. When he was fourteen, he had been in the woods surrounding his stepfather’s home studying Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock.” His mind had turned to the “pillowy breasts” of a servant and he began to masturbate. He fell asleep and was awakened with his pants around his legs by his mother. Not knowing what to say, Lysander had blamed it all on Tommy Bledlow, the son of a servant. Both Tommy and his father Davy were dismissed as a result.
Lysander returns to the pension, where he learns that Wolfram has been acquitted of all charges. He managed to transfer the suspicions to a Catholic officer of Jewish descent named Frankenthal. Though there is no evidence of guilt, Wolfram is confident in the empire’s prejudice. Lysander returns to his room, where he finds a letter from Hettie Bull inviting him to an exhibition of Udo Hoff’s recent work.
Part 1, Chapters 11-15 Summary
Dr. Bensimon has begun to work on a theory called “parallelism.” Parallelism suggests that the world is “gaunt” until people cover it with details and context. For example, people might find the world around them ugly when they are in a bad mood, but when in a better mood, they might see beauty in all things. Therefore, people’s past is an aggregate of the fictions they create. Bensimon believes that this approach may cure Lysander of his anorgasmia. Lysander is hypnotized and Bensimon inserts a new memory in Lysander’s consciousness. In it, he fell asleep but nothing embarrassing happened. When Lysander awakes, he can recall the second memory, and Bensimon encourages him to rely on it.
Lysander begins to prepare for Udo Hoff’s exhibition by going to a gallery. Along the way, he sees miners and considers whether he could write a poem about them. In the gallery, he practices lines that he can say at the exhibition, like the painting is “striking.” At the exhibition, he finds Hoff’s work impressive because of its subtle transgressions. He also comes across the poster that was torn down in the street. It is for Andromeda und Perseus. Eine Oper in vier Akten von Gottlieb Toller. While looking at the painting, he meets Dr. Bensimon, who informs Lysander that the woman in the painting is Hettie Bull. Lysander shifts his gaze from the woman’s body to her face and realizes it is true. When he meets Hoff, Lysander compliments his work, but the painter is indifferent. Hettie tells Lysander that she would like to draw and sculpt him, and though he is initially uninterested, Lysander agrees.
Lysander reads the start of a letter from his fiancée, Blanche, who informs him that she is about to make a lot of money in film. Lysander is irritated that her letters only express her thoughts but never enter into a dialogue with his. When he arrives at Hettie Bull’s studio in Ottakring, he finds the sculptor in her smock. Beneath it, Lysander notes, she is wearing a muslin blouse and a serge skirt. She has been working on a minotaur whose frame is inspired by Hoff’s body. She asks Lysander to pose nude for her, and at first he thinks that she is joking. However, she is not, and Lysander agrees. Afterward, she shows him her initial drawing and Lysander finds it impressive. She has drawn his penis as well, and she comments that he has a short foreskin, like Hoff. Then she takes him to bed.
Part 1, Chapters 16-20 Summary
Lysander recalls the details of his affair to Dr. Bensimon, though he does not share the identity of his partner, Bensimon’s patient Hettie Bull. Lysander is proud to have made love to Hettie twice and to have climaxed both times. During their pillow talk, he recalls, he asked Hettie whether she had planned the affair all along. She admits that she had planned to sleep with him after they had first met. Regardless, Bensimon agrees that Lysander has been cured. Lysander is struck by why he is attracted to Hattie, who does not appear to be his type at all. Still, he finds himself infatuated with her.
The affair continues over several months, during which time Wolfram leaves the pension. The couple takes great care to prevent Udo Hoff from discovering them. They leave messages for each other at a café and then meet in hotels. During this time, he learns that Hettie has been injecting Coca to control her mood. Lysander is guilty about his betrayal of his fiancée and writes to her to break off their relationship, claiming that it will take him too long to be cured to be fair to her. However, he soon receives a reply from Blanche, who declares that she will stand by him. She refuses to hear any talk of breaking off their engagement. Hettie invites Lysander to a New Year’s Eve party at Hoff’s. Though they are nearly caught together, the drunk painter does not appear suspicious.
Lysander seems to have been cured of his anorgasmia. He even meets Sigmund Freud at a café and claims that Bensimon cured him using parallelism. Freud prefers not to comment on parallelism, but he congratulates Lysander nevertheless. Now, however, Lysander is running out of money, and he regularly writes to his mother for additional funds. He has no income, and Hettie relies entirely on Hoff, who is surprisingly wealthy.
Lysander is confused when he arrives at the café to find a cryptic note from Hettie. She claims that she is a coward. Lysander returns to the pension for supper, but the meal is interrupted when the police arrive to arrest him on charges of rape. They allow Lysander to collect his things, and Lysander gives Alwyn Munro’s contact information to Herr Barth before he leaves.
Inspector Strolz explains that Hettie is pregnant and that Udo Hoff brought the charges of rape to the police. The situation seems bleak. Lysander is imprisoned, his trial will occur in three months, and he can neither afford nor make arrangements for a lawyer. Furthermore, although he is surprised that Hettie is pregnant—she had always claimed to be barren—he is now sure that the fetus will be aborted. His first day in prison is interrupted when Munro arrives, informing him that the charges have been dropped to assault, that the British Embassy has paid for Lysander’s bail, and that Lysander will be kept at the embassy until the trial. Though they have paid for his bail, Lysander will be expected to pay back his debt.
Part 1, Chapters 21-25 Summary
Lysander is staying in a temporary consulate building, a small villa in the classical style. The prison has two stories and is near a garden, and His Majesty’s government is paying for both the costs of his incarceration and his legal fees. His lawyer, Herr Feuerstein, agrees with Lysander that the best defense will be to reveal the details of his affair with Hettie. Feuerstein takes note of the details of the affair and plans to visit each hotel to gather evidence proving Hettie’s complicity in the affair and that Lysander is innocent of assault.
Lysander asks Munro to bring Hettie to him. She arrives and they kiss passionately. Lysander is later angry with her, but Hettie explains that she could not face Hoff’s anger. She also admits that she read his file when Dr. Bensimon once left it on his desk. Although she does not look pregnant, she swears that if the details of the affair come to light, Hoff will force her to abort the pregnancy. Although Feuerstein returns from his investigations confident in the case, Lysander decides that he will not go to trial.
Instead, he proposes to Munro and to Jack Fyfe-Miller, a naval attaché, that he escape the prison. Munro and Fyfe-Miller begin to discuss what it would mean to leave the prison. First, many of the servants spy on the embassy for the Austrians, and they are at their most alert during the night. So Lysander would do well to leave during the day. The police would expect him to travel north, so it would be a good idea to travel south to Italy, outside of the Austro-Hungarian empire. A man would need at least two hundred crowns, which Munro lays on the table. Fyfe-Miller cautions that a man would have to rely on his ingenuity to escape. When they leave, Lysander discovers a brass key.
He returns to the pension, hoping to find Herr Barth. Though he is out, Traudl answers the door. She is distraught to see him, but Lysander commands her to let him into Barth’s room. He warns that he will tell Frau K that she has been sleeping with the boarders to earn extra money, and he reminds her that she owes him twenty crowns. Lysander then proceeds to the train station wearing clothes that he has stolen from Barth. He carries a double bass and curses in Italian as he approaches the train. The police, looking for an Englishman, ignore him.
When he arrives in Trieste, at the edge of the Italian border, Jack Fyfe-Miller appears. He congratulates Lysander on his ingenious escape. And he reminds Lysander that the young actor still owes His Majesty’s government a great deal of money.
Part 2, Chapters 1-6 Summary
Lysander has returned to London, and it is 1914. He has taken up acting again and is performing two plays—Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and Strindberg’s Miss Julie—with Rutherford Davison’s company. Davison is influenced by the Russian director Constantin Stanislavsky, and so he asks Lysander questions about the characters whose answers are not directly stated in the text. Lysander finds it irritating and worries that he and Davison will not get along. Lysander is less bothered by Davison’s intention to perform the plays so that they will shock society and the censors. Lysander’s leading lady is Gilda Butterfield, and he knows that she is attracted to him.
However, Lysander still has feelings for Hettie. Blanche has figured out that Lysander fell in love while in Vienna and she leaves him, though she suggests that he propose to her again at some point. Lysander travels to the country to visit his mother and her husband, where he tells his mother about his son, Lothar, and his relationship with Hettie. He gives her a copy of Andromeda und Perseus. Eine Oper in vier Akten von Gottlieb Toller with a cover to show her what Hettie looks like. His mother is surprised that Lysander has fallen for a woman so unlike his usual type: tall and thin.
The next day, Lysander hikes cross-country to visit his uncle, Hamo, who is also known as “the Major.” The Major had been a soldier but now works as an explorer. He has just returned from a recent expedition to Africa. Lysander tells the Major about Hettie and Lothar, and they begin to plan the Major’s next expedition, a trip to Vienna to bring back Lothar. The Major has returned to Africa with a child, Femi, who had been his guide along the Niger. When Hamo and Femi travel in the town, the Major tells everyone that Femi is a visiting African prince to calm them.
The plans are delayed, however, due to the rising tensions in Europe. Jack Fyfe-Miller and Alwyn Munro both see Lysander when he returns to the city. Lysander is given his bill of £860, an outstanding sum that he could not hope to pay off. He still owes his mother money, besides. Lysander burns the invoice. After the opening night of Measure for Measure, the critics are scandalized by Davison's interpretation of Shakespeare. Lysander is not bothered, and he soon sleeps with Gloria. Though their performance is meant to shock, the papers are soon preoccupied with the declaration of war. Lysander receives word from Hettie that she will change Lothar’s surname to Hoff to keep the boy safe.
Part 2, Chapters 7-12 Summary
Lysander has joined the military, in part out of a need for routine and distraction and in part due to a fantasy that he might march into Vienna and reclaim his son. Now, he is assigned to the Bishop’s Bay Internment Camp, which holds “illegal and enemy aliens.” He spends his time seeing men and women, like Frau Schumacher, who complain to him about their health and their wrongful incarceration. Lysander’s commanding officer is Captain J. St.J. Teesdale, a nineteen-year-old trying to grow a moustache. The other soldiers refer to Lysander as “Actor,” but they tolerate him because he buys them drinks at a local pub. When he returns from the pub one evening, the sergeant tells him that an officer has come to collect him. It is Alwyn Munro.
Munro and Lysander return to London, where they meet Fyfe-Miller. They also meet Colonel Massinger, who shows Lysander a one-on-one code, which, Massinger explains, is impossible to break because the text key is known only to the sender and the receiver. The code is being sent from London to a German official in Geneva, and Massinger thinks that it has led to several English defeats in the war. Lysander’s mission is to convince the German to give up the key. Geneva is like a “cesspit of spies, informants, agents, couriers,” explains Massinger, so all foreigners are immediately inspected upon arrival. Lysander will be declared missing in action before taking on the identity of a Swiss railway engineer, Abelard Schwimmer. In return for this effort, Lysander’s debt to His Majesty’s government will be considered paid in full. Finally, Lysander is promoted to lieutenant.
Lysander is given one week of leave. He sups with Blanche, and feels one of his crowns pull loose. He visits a dentist, who shocks him via his saliva and his other crowns. The pain is intense. Lysander also receives a cordial letter from Dr. Bensimon, who has returned to England because of the war, and meets with his mother. Anna busies herself running the Claverleigh Hall War Fund, an organization that began by collecting blankets but has since become much more influential. Lysander notes that his mother has become more youthful since starting the work. She informs him that his stepfather appears to be dying. Femi, meanwhile, has returned to Africa. Lysander also meets with his uncle. Hamo warns Lysander to be careful with his orders. Anyone can obey orders; the clever soldier interprets them.
When Lysander arrives at the front, he leaves the trench in the middle of the night. He throws a bomb that kills two soldiers below him. Afterward, he is to navigate a ditch until he sees green flares, which will identify a safe path through the French lines. However, in the middle of the night, he does not see any flares. Uncertain what to do, he decides to wait for sunrise. Then, he calls out to the French line that he is an English officer who is lost in no man’s land. The French initially shoot at him, but eventually direct him to a gap in the barbed wire. Lysander is exhausted. When he arrives, he meets Fyfe-Miller again, who assures Lysander that the easy part is over.
Part 3, Chapters 1-5 Summary
It is 1915 when Lysander arrives in Geneva. He is to make contact with Agent Bonfire in a brasserie called the Taverne Des Anglais. Bonfire reads all of the correspondence that goes through the German consulate. Bonfire will lead him to the German agent who holds the key to the cipher. Lysander recalls asking Massinger what he should do if the agent refuses his offered bribe; he was told to start cutting off the agent’s fingers. After he arrives in Geneva, Lysander frequents the Taverne Des Anglais, but Agent Bonfire does not arrive. Lysander grows bored of waiting but has no choice. He spends his time touring Geneva, and, haunted by the two men he killed in no man’s land, struggles to sleep.
When Agent Bonfire makes contact, they exchange a double password before sitting down to discuss Lysander’s mission. Lysander is surprised to learn that Bonfire is a woman, a widow who introduces herself as Madame Duchesne. Her husband, a Frenchman, was killed by the Germans. Lysander is to retrieve the key to the cipher from Manfred Glockner. They also agree to go out to dinner, during which she gives him a small revolver, a present from Massinger. After dinner, Lysander tells her his real name, which Madame Duchesne claims is a mistake. Nevertheless, she tells him her first name, Florence.
On Sunday, Lysander enters Glockner’s building. He knocks on Glockner’s door, claiming to be a plumber looking into a leak. When the door is opened, Lysander reveals his pistol, enters, and ties up Glockner. Lysander offers Glockner 25,000 francs, a first installment, as a bribe. However, Glockner claims that he does not have the key because he passes the letters on to Berlin. Lysander goes to the kitchen, remembering Massinger’s directive to begin cutting off fingers.
Once inside, however, he finds two pan scourers. He returns to Glockner and inserts the scourers into the man’s mouth. Then, he goes to a nearby lamp, removes the flex, and approaches Glockner with the wires arranged in a Y. When Glockner refuses to talk, Lysander electrocutes him. He does so a second time before Glockner gives up the text key. It is Andromeda und Perseus. Eine Oper in vier Akten von Gottlieb Toller. Lysander is struck by his memory of the poster in Vienna, but pushes the thought aside. He tidies the room and leaves.
He decodes several of Glockner’s letters, confirming that there is a traitor in London. However, instead of sending the key to Massinger, he sends a wire confirming that there is a traitor and that he does have the key. He sends the decoded letters to Claverleigh. He then makes arrangements to travel to Evian-les-Bains by steamer. Lysander boards the ship in disguise as Tom O’Bedlam. He falls asleep on board and is awoken by Madame Duchesne. She informs him that Glockner is dead of a heart attack before she inquires about the key. Lysander explains that it is too difficult to explain, and besides, it would be safer if he kept it to himself. She invites him below decks and, once there, shoots him three times. Lysander lies on the floor, barely conscious, as the ship arrives in Evian-les-Bains.
Part 4, Chapters 1-5 Summary
Shot and dying, Lysander is fortunately discovered by one of the ship’s crewmen. Massinger transports Lysander to a British base hospital. He has been shot once in the leg, a wound that leaves him with a temporary limp. The second shot passed through both his left hand and his shoulder. The last shot collapsed his lung. He returns to Oxford by the end of August 1915. He is visited at one point by Massinger, who explains that his boyish French led Madame Duchesne to believe her orders had been to shoot Lysander should she doubt his loyalty and honesty. Massinger apologizes for the mistake.
He meets with Munro, who congratulates Lysander on the success of his mission. When asked about Glockner's death, Lysander lies and says that the German had still been healthy when Lysander had left. Lysander has told his superiors that the cipher’s key was based on the German Bible, but Munro knows that this is a lie as well. Lysander tells him that it was based on Andromeda und Perseus. Eine Oper in vier Akten von Gottlieb Toller. Munro claims not to have heard of it, which Lysander takes as a lie, given its notoriety in Vienna during 1913. He decides that he should no longer trust Munro. However, Lysander agrees to another mission, though this “decision” is aided by Munro’s assurance that the former actor has no choice in the matter.
The decoded messages are not enough to identify the traitor, though it is clear that the traitor works in the Directorate of Movements. Munro and Massinger take Lysander to meet a captain in Whitehall Court, London. The captain does not introduce himself. They decide to insert Lysander in the War Office by claiming that he is following up on a commission from the previous year. When Massinger suggests that they might be stepping on M.O. 5’s toes, the captain assures them that M.O. 5 is too busy to put anyone on the case anyhow. They label the traitor “Andromeda,” and Lysander begins his search. When Lysander arrives, however, he soon realizes that the search will be extraordinarily difficult. He resolves to begin interviewing the members of the Directorate.
Now that Lysander has returned from the front, he has more time to see his family. His mother is now in mourning, though she seems to be doing well. Hamo takes Lysander to a party. The invitation is ostensibly to honor the Major for his book, The Lost Lake, but when Lysander arrives, he meets Hettie Bull, who explains that the party was really just a scheme to lure Lysander there. She has left Lothar in Austria, and she now goes by the name Vanora. Lysander finds himself infatuated with her once again, and he asks her to meet with him as soon as possible. It will not be easy, Hettie/Vanora explains, since she is now married to Jago Lasry, an author.
Part 4, Chapters 6-10 Summary
Lysander begins to interview the officers of the Directorate of Movements. He narrows the list down to three primary suspects, all of whom have access to the relevant information. They have also recently traveled to France. The first is Osborne-Way, who is in charge of the department. Osborne-Way, who is suspicious to Lysander because he seems innocent, has also opposed Lysander’s presence since the latter’s arrival. Major Mansfield Keogh, meanwhile, is Osborne-Way’s second in command. Finally, Captain Christian Vandenbrook supervises the dispatch of ammunition, ordnance, and supplies to France. Lysander adopts a disguise and follows Keogh first. He learns that the Major is in mourning over his wife and moves on.
Christian Vandenbrook is the most charming of Lysander’s suspects, and he seems happy in his life. He is sufficiently wealthy to take a taxi home from work everyday. He tends to stay in small hotels when he travels, and Lysander follows the captain to the Dene Hotel in Hythe. There, he follows Vandenbrook inside but sits alone in the pub. Soon after ordering a whiskey soda, Lysander is shocked to see his mother arrive. She enters the hotel and meets with Vandenbrook. By their body language, Lysander can tell that they are lovers who want the world to assume that they are anything but. He is not in a good position to pass judgment because he and Hettie/Vanora have begun to meet in hotels again.After further investigation, the hotel staff reveal that Vandenbrook leaves envelopes behind with the staff. Lysander obtains one envelope, and inside, he finds information about the deployment of supplies. The information is not encoded. Lysander does not pass the information on to his superiors, deciding instead to investigate further.
He meets with Jack Fyfe-Miller, who is in disguise. Fyfe-Miller suggests that Lysander pursue his Andromeda before the target becomes suspicious and leaves. Lysander decides to finally confront Vandenbrook with the evidence. Vandenbrook breaks down immediately, and Lysander is shocked by how complete the captain’s shame is. Vandenbrook confesses that he is being blackmailed. He admits that he has a weakness for prostitutes, including children. When Lysander suggests that they find the mother and child who are blackmailing him, Vandenbrook explains that they have passed the information on to someone else. Furthermore, Vandenbrook claims to have no idea about the code. Realizing that the situation has become much more complex, Lysander tells Vandenbrook to carry on as before while he investigates the matter further.
Lysander also begins to visit Dr. Bensimon again in the hopes of ridding himself of his recurring dreams about the men he killed in no man’s land. Lysander has been relying on chloral nitrate to sleep, but the doctor warns him against it.
Part 4, Chapters 11-15 Summary
Lysander travels to visit his mother. He is initially struck by the feeling that nothing has changed since he was a teenager in Claverleigh, but he then thinks about how much the world has changed. Something new has begun, he thinks, and he resists it. He considers discussing his confusion about the modern world with Bensimon.
He is careful about how he asks his mother about her relationship with Vandenbrook. She does not admit to engaging in an affair with the captain, instead citing her involvement in the Claverleigh Hall War Fund as the reason she knew him. Lysander explains Vandenbrook’s treachery, and his mother soon declares that she will be implicated because she is Austrian. Lysander realizes that he, too, might be implicated and so tells his mother to continue on as before. He then asks whether she still has the copy of Andromeda und Perseus. Eine Oper in vier Akten von Gottlieb Toller that he gave her. She goes to find it, but when she returns, she claims to have lost it.
Lysander returns to London, where he rents a flat for him and Hettie/Vanora. Massinger invites him out one evening, and it turns out that Madame Duchesne has requested an opportunity to apologize to him in person for shooting him three times. She has fled Geneva and is now being sent to Holland, where she will meet a man named Munro. She, like Lysander, seems consumed by feelings of uncertainty. They agree to meet again some time.
Lysander also continues his work at the Directorate of Movements. He is interrupted by a zeppelin air raid. The zeppelin bombs several theaters, including the Lyceum. Lysander recalls that Blanche is performing there, and he rushes to her aid. Along the way, he discovers that someone is following him, and he suspects that it is Jack Fyfe-Miller. When he arrives, he finds Blanche, and he takes her back to his apartment. They sleep together and Lysander proposes to her. She accepts. Lysander writes to Hettie, telling her not to contact him again.
Before work, Lysander is interrupted by Munro. They drink coffee together and Munro pressures Lysander to finish his investigation into the traitor Andromeda as soon as possible. Lysander continues to keep his information to himself. Munro reveals that he knows about some of Lysander’s investigations, and Lysander realizes that he is being watched. When he arrives at the Directorate of Movements, he starts to work when he is interrupted. His uncle Hamo has arrived at the Directorate with bad news: Lysander’s mother is dead.
Part 4, Chapters 16-21 Summary
Lysander’s mother, Anna, killed herself by walking into the sea. She left behind a letter explaining that she felt Lysander was putting himself in harm’s way trying to protect her. He recalls Wolfram’s declaration that he would have committed suicide—Selbstmord—if he had been found guilty. When Lysander tells Bensimon what has happened, the psychoanalyst admits that it was quite normal in Vienna. Lysander asks whether the psychoanalyst had ever met Alwyn Munro and Bensimon answers carefully, explaining that Munro was a patient.
While at work, Lysander takes a call on the telephone. It is Hettie Bull, and Lysander agrees to meet with her. She accuses Lysander of cheating on her, and Lysander reminds her that she is married, not to mention that she betrayed him in Vienna. In response to Lysander’s explanation, she explains that she had the charges dropped from rape to assault after a visit from two military attachés. Lysander realizes that they were Fyfe-Miller and Munro. When Lysander rejects her again, she declares that he will never see Lothar.
Lysander brings the Andromeda affair to a close. He invites Fyfe-Miller, Munro, and Massinger to a theater and tells them that the traitor is Mansfield Keogh. However, Lysander has also asked Vandenbrook to attend in order to see whether the traitor can identify any of the three spies. He cannot. The next day, he is contacted with a note to meet. Lysander arrives early and learns that the note is from Vandenbrook. Vandenbrook explains that his blackmailer is a woman named Lady Anna Faulkner. When Lysander admits that she is his mother, Vandenbrook pulls out a revolver and accuses Lysander of being a traitor. Vandenbrook’s head explodes, and Hamo, carrying a rifle, reveals himself. Lysander fires a single round from Vandenbrook’s gun and leaves a note reading “Andromeda” on the front on Vandenbrook’s chest.
However, there was no “Eureka moment.” When Lysander discusses the case with Munro, the latter has many questions about Lysander’s work. Lysander suggests that Vandenbrook’s actions were all part of a careful escape plan and that there was no blackmail. Lysander’s primary argument is based on a slip by Vandenbrook. The captain refers to Andromeda und Perseus. Eine Oper in vier Akten von Gottlieb Toller as "saucy" even though he had not been to Vienna, which means that he saw the cover of the cipher’s text key. He stole it from Anna. When Munro remains unconvinced, Lysander asks, “How can you be sure about anything? It’s my best guess.” Munro agrees to honorably discharge Lysander from the military.
Lysander receives a note from Hettie, as well as a picture of Lothar. She is going to New Mexico to become a teacher. Lysander takes a role in George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman. Lysander still struggles to sleep, though parallelism is slowly helping. The novel ends on a dark and foggy night in London, almost at the end of 1915. Lysander can be seen leaving the theater as he takes a long and winding route home. Now, he is clearly a man who “is far more at ease occupying the cold security of the dark; a man happier with the dubious comfort of the shadows.”