15

Holden wakes around ten, hungry but afraid to order room service in case Maurice delivers it, so he smokes and considers calling Jane Gallagher. Instead, he phones Sally Hayes, whom he finds attractive but phony, and arranges to meet her under the Biltmore clock at two for a Sunday matinee.

Holden dresses, checks out of the hotel, and takes a cab to Grand Central with no place to go until Tuesday or Wednesday. He stows his bags in a locker, worries about his dwindling cash, and muses about his wealthy lawyer father and his mother’s fragile nerves since Allie’s death. He heads to a sandwich bar for a large breakfast.

Two nuns with inexpensive suitcases sit beside him, prompting Holden to recall a painful class-conscious memory about his Elkton Hills roommate Dick Slagle and their unequal luggage. He helps the nuns, donates ten dollars, and learns they teach English and history at an uptown convent. With the English-teaching nun, Holden discusses assigned reading, focusing on Romeo and Juliet and confessing he mourned Mercutio more than the lovers because Mercutio’s death felt undeserved.

When the nuns prepare to leave, they decline his attempt to pay their check, call him sweet, and depart. Holden reflects on Catholics’ habit of probing for shared faith, recalling Louis Shaney’s subtle question at Whooton, and is relieved the nuns didn’t ask. He embarrasses himself by accidentally blowing smoke in their faces and apologizes profusely.

After they go, Holden immediately regrets giving only ten dollars, but justifies it because he needs money for his date with Sally. The moment intensifies his recurring belief that money makes him blue, underscoring his loneliness and conflicted generosity as he waits for the afternoon.