David Lindsay, a recently discharged wartime flyer, returns to New York with his wit intact and his nerves frayed, writing evasive letters while glancing toward the doorway as if something unseen is waiting there. He tries to joke himself into civilian life, dreaming of violets, tea rooms, and baby blankets, even as he weighs a biography of the elusive Lutetia Murray against the prospect of finally telling the truth about the war. In the city's cafés and apartments, he meets Gratia, a sharp-tongued pacifist, and is drawn into a restless circle of friends whose talk of flying, psychology, politics, and postwar disillusionment turns every gathering into a contest of irony and performance. War stories exhaust him, and by night he is haunted by a terrifying presence that seems to stand in the dark and stare back. Meanwhile, Susannah Ayer, newly independent in New York, tries to steady herself after a disturbing experience that leaves her feeling shaken and altered. In the bright ambition of the Admolian Building and later at the Carbonado Mining Company, she rebuilds her confidence through work, humor, and private conversations with her miniature alter ego, "Glorious Lutie." But money remains tight, job-hunting turns humiliating, and a chance encounter with H. Withington Warner sends her fleeing before she can secure a position. As she lunches with Eloise, confides half-secrets, and struggles to keep her spirits up, the novel traces two witty, vulnerable lives buffeted by war's aftermath, modern city pressure, and an undercurrent of supernatural dread. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
