Alice Gull’s lover is a political activist who never appears directly in the novel. His political work forces him to keep a secret identity, and all that is known about him is that Cato is his war name. Alice and he share an intensely passionate relationship, marked by the secrecy of Cato’s work. He sacrifices his private life for the political cause he believes in, putting his own life at risk—and ultimately being killed—to organize unions and defend the rights of vulnerable members of the working class.