A Handful of Dust

Tony is aboard a ship sailing to South America. A man paces up and down the deck to pass the time. When he stops to talk, Tony explains that he is “looking for a city” (160). The other passengers come to view Tony as an “explorer,” though he doesn’t yet think of himself as one. Two weeks earlier, Tony met a man named Dr. Messinger at his club. Amid the chaos of the divorce, Messinger’s descriptions of his imminent voyage intrigued Tony. By joining Messinger on the trip, Tony has extricated himself from the social scene in London and left behind the “poisoned” atmosphere at Hetton that reminds him of the son and wife he lost.

On the voyage, Tony thinks about the lost city that is Dr. Messinger’s objective. He knows very little about the legendary lost city, but thinking about it takes his mind off everything else. During the long voyage, Tony becomes acquainted with an 18-year-old woman named Therese. She is returning to Trinidad after being educated in Paris. Her father works as an official in Trinidad, and she will soon be married. With the “flowering of this romance” (172), the other passengers are entertained by the potential for gossip.