Part II The Baths — Chapter Two

Days pass as Thomas Senlin adopts a routine: mornings spent discreetly combing hotel registries for Marya, afternoons reading the Guide or drinking to steady his nerves. He briefly probes the Baths’ back alleys and boarding houses but retreats, convincing himself Marya wouldn’t resort to such places. Memories of the Parlor fade, and he comforts himself with the thought that Edith survived and returned home.

Senlin avoids customs scrutiny, lunching near the gate among tourists. He dines nightly with John Tarrou but withholds the truth about Marya, preferring their banter to confronting his growing dread. By the reservoir, Tarrou points out a nervous, costumed merchant as customs agents arrive.

The agents strip and shave the debtor, publicly reciting his debts and sentencing him to twelve years as a hod. They lock a collar bearing his sentence around his neck and march him away. Tarrou soberly explains the Old Vein, a deadly internal passage for hods, and warns Senlin to mind his debts, impressing on him the Baths’ harsh justice.

Despite this warning, the Baths’ ease dulls Senlin’s urgency. He completes yet another hotel circuit, lingers by music and children, and finally yields to Tarrou’s urging to visit the Fountain. In the soaring, steam-filled spire of tubs, his anxiety evaporates temporarily as he makes only a perfunctory search for Marya.

Returning to routine, Senlin calculates his dwindling funds: perhaps ten days left, two weeks at best if he forgoes evening wine. The realization revives his fear of the Baths’ stratified fate—from tourist to hod. Sleeplessness and then oppressive dreams follow, where the shorn debtor collapses in the Old Vein and Senlin, forgetting his quest, stoops to shoulder the load himself.