17

Early at the Biltmore, Holden people-watches and muses about girls’ futures and an old roommate, Harris Macklin, whose great whistling complicates Holden’s judgments about “bores.” Sally arrives looking striking, prompting Holden’s sudden, contradictory desire to marry her.

They take a cab to see the Lunts. Holden playfully necks with Sally, even telling her he loves her, then resents her trivial comment about his hair. During the first intermission, he’s repelled by the lobby’s showy crowd and especially by George, an Andover acquaintance who monopolizes Sally with name-dropping and pretension.

After the show, irritated, Holden still follows Sally’s “marvelous idea” to go ice-skating at Radio City, largely so she can wear a cute skating outfit. Both skate badly and, aching, they retreat inside for Cokes. There, Holden confesses his exhaustion with school, New York, and adult phoniness, searching for understanding.

Seized by impulse, Holden proposes they leave immediately, borrow a car, and live simply in New England until the money runs out, then work and possibly marry. Sally rejects the plan as childish and unrealistic, insisting such adventures can wait until after college and marriage.

Feeling dismissed, Holden spirals into despair, arguing that postponement would only trap them in the very phoniness he hates. The quarrel escalates until he calls Sally “a royal pain in the ass.” She bursts into tears and refuses his apologies or an escort home. Holden laughs nervously, worsening things, then finally leaves alone, ashamed yet insisting he meant his desperate proposal.