Lolita

Humbert tapes a goodbye note to Rita’s navel and goes on the road to track Lolita and her husband, whom he assumes is the man who took Lolita from the hospital. He brings the gun with him and practices firing on a sweater he finds in the car. Lolita has not given Humbert her address, but he tracks her to a town called Coalmont in New York. He assumes Richard is from Beardsley. In Coalmont, Humbert showers, shaves, and dresses in his best clothes before he asks around to find out where Richard Schiller lives. He first traces him to “10 Killer Street” (268), and he admits here that he is no longer trying to make clever pseudonyms for the reader. On “Hunter Road,” he finds a shack on a muddy road. He places the gun in his pocket and walks to the door. 

Lolita, visibly pregnant and wearing pink-rimmed glasses, answers the door. Humbert realizes he still loves her even though she is no longer a nymphet. Dick, her husband, is working in the backyard with a friend named Bill, who is missing an arm due to an injury from the war. Dick is a simple man who does not impress Humbert.