The Razor’s Edge: Part 4, Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

A week or so after Somerset first sees Larry in Paris, Somerset and Suzanne are out for a beer after having had dinner and seen a movie. Somerset sees Larry walking on the street, and, to his surprise, Suzanne calls out to him. Larry asks Suzanne how her daughter, Odette, is doing. Suzanne tells Somerset she and Larry are old friends. After Larry leaves abruptly, Somerset says that maybe he had to run off to go see a woman waiting for him. Suzanne says she pities any woman who falls in love with Larry and says that she once almost fell in love with him herself. Suzanne says that when she got out of the hospital six or seven years ago after almost dying from typhoid, she ran into Larry, who was an acquaintance at the time.

Larry invited Suzanne to a meal, and then, seeing that Suzanne was struggling, invited her and Odette to the country with him. There, Larry told Suzanne about his friend, Patsy, who died while saving Larry’s life in the war. Suzanne and Larry stayed in the country for a few weeks and began an affair. Suzanne says that Larry would continue reading his book as soon as Suzanne left his room and that those were the happiest weeks of her life. “That man,” she says about Larry, “he’s an angel of sweetness.” She says that one day, after four weeks or so, Larry decided out of the blue to leave and gave 12,000 francs to Suzanne. She couldn’t figure out why he left. “We’re not used to persons who simply do things for the love of God whom they don’t believe in,” Somerset says to Suzanne.