The End of the Affair: Book 2, Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Henry drops his hat on his way out of the restaurant after Bendrix gives him Parkis’s reports, so Bendrix walks out after him. In a narrated aside, Bendrix says that, if he could, he might have turned back the clock and decided to walk right past Henry that night he saw him on the Common. However, Bendrix doesn’t think this would have ultimately mattered, saying, “I am beginning to doubt whether anything I can do will ever alter the course of events.”

Bendrix wanders into the Victoria Gardens and spots Henry sitting on a bench. It is clear that Henry is crying and Bendrix, overcome with an uncharacteristic feeling of sympathy, apologizes to him. Henry invites Bendrix to sit down and asks if he and Sarah also had an affair. At first, Bendrix is evasive, but Henry tells him it’s the only possible reason for Bendrix’s decision to hire a detective. Bendrix starts to feel overcome by jealously again, so he tells Henry that there were also others. When Henry asks him why, Bendrix says it was because Henry is “a bore and a fool.”

Henry asks Bendrix why his affair with Sarah ended, and Bendrix explains that he also became “a bore, boring her with complaints and jealousy.” Henry and Bendrix look around at the empty park in silence for a while before Bendrix goes on to say that he and Sarah had simply used up all their love—Sarah could do all kinds of domestic duties in her home with Henry, but all she and Bendrix could do was have sex. Henry says that Sarah is “very fond of [Bendrix],” to which Bendrix replies that “One isn’t satisfied with fondness.” Henry, however, retorts that he is. Henry says it isn’t “human nature” for love to go “on and on” as Bendrix wanted. Bendrix remembers that Sarah said something very different when she ended their affair.