Chapter 58, 'The Waste Land': Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens with Frobisher walking on foot toward Tower Bridge, deliberately avoiding his car after the disastrous Oxford outing with Gwendolen Kelling. He is haunted by the memory of her disbelief and distaste when he mentioned a wife, and he reflects that for a moment she offered him a glimpse of a different, easier life — a dream now over. He brings his small dog, Pierrot (a name Gwendolen prompted), to Bow Street station, since Lottie has developed a strong antipathy to the animal, believing it is meant to replace Manon. The desk sergeant accepts the dog without objection.

At the morgue platform on Tower Bridge, Frobisher examines a body pulled from the Thames. The morgue attendant tells him it is not a girl but a man in fancy dress — a matador costume. Frobisher notes this is a first.

Back at Bow Street, a woman, Mrs Taylor, is waiting. She reports that her fifteen-year-old daughter, Minnie Carter, ran away from home in Colchester three weeks ago. Minnie's father died at Amiens; her mother has remarried, and Minnie and her stepfather Harold do not get along. Mrs Taylor believes Minnie was seduced by the bright lights of London and wanted to be on the stage. Frobisher asks about jewellery, and Mrs Taylor describes a silver locket given by her sister, containing a photograph of herself and of the family dog, Sammy, a terrier. Frobisher retrieves the locket from the evidence room — part of a growing collection of items recovered from drowned girls — and shows it to Mrs Taylor. She identifies it as Minnie's, initially believing her daughter has been found alive. Frobisher hesitates before telling her,