Quicksand

Helga is upset by the heat and being forced to sit “with others of her own race” (22) on the train en route to Chicago. She reflects upon her meeting with Dr. Anderson, wondering why she had allowed herself to become so angry. She realizes that she has been rude to Anderson and knows that he might have been able to persuade her to remain at Naxos.

Helga recalls the circumstances of her “remote” Scandinavian mother’s life, and “hoped that she had been happy…in the little time it had lasted” (23) before being abandoned by Helga’s father. Her mother’s second marriage to a white man resulted in Helga’s exposure to the “savage unkindness of her stepbrothers and sisters” (23) and contributed to her constant sense of loneliness, which was only exacerbated by her mother’s death. She realizes that the explanation of her reasons for breaking her engagement to James Vayle have been “inane and insufficient” (23).

Ultimately, Helga is able to secure a berth at an inflated price, but her thoughts still turn to frustration with her performance during her resignation from Naxos.