Tender Is the Night

Nicole reflects on the growing distance between her and Dick. His alcoholism, she perceives, is a way for him to close himself off from her, not necessarily a vice in itself; she senses that Dick finds security in his children and in simpler things that distract him from the immensity of life.

They are back on the beach near Gausse’s Hotel, like at the beginning of the story. Five years have passed. Nicole and Dick spot Rosemary on a raft out in the water. They swim out to her and talk as though nothing melodramatic ever happened. Nicole begins to feel that Dick and Rosemary are complimenting each other a little flirtatiously and she swims away.

Rosemary suggests a little water skiing, and Dick agrees, though Nicole passes. Two years before, Dick was capable of performing a trick in which he could hold another man up while keeping his balance on the water, and this time he tries that same trick again. Nicole, annoyed, presumes he is doing it to show off to Rosemary.

However, Dick is unable to perform the trick. Twice he falls, and the third time, visibly angry with himself, he is almost seriously injured in the attempt.