Lilian is miserable she misses Frances and wishes to leave Leonard. Frances awaits a letter from Lilian, almost becoming disenchanted with their relationship. Lilian surprises Frances with a visit to the skating rink before she goes. The week separation seems unbearable to the two women. Toward the end of the summer, Lilian and Leonard are to leave on vacation. Frances openly admits to loving Lilian Lilian reciprocates sometime after.įrances and Lilian begin a secret relationship, made difficult by the presence of Mrs. Lilian and Frances have sex for the first time in the kitchen scullery. Though he has suffered only a black eye and broken nose, the event ruins the intimacy of the evening-until Lilian sneaks from bed. When they return home, they find that an unknown assailant has attacked Leonard. Frances realizes that Lilian has become attracted to her. Lilian and Frances attend the party together, and even dance intimately. However, the evening fosters a greater intimacy between Frances and her paying guests. Leonard and Lilian apologize in turn they are ashamed for involving Frances. Though Frances had fun, she feels great shame for her behavior the next day. They smoke strong, foreign cigarettes together. They play a modified version of snakes and ladders, which involves Lilian stripping. Leonard bullies Lilian, and the two argue their marriage is not a happy one. During the course of the evening, the three grow more and more drunk. Frances and Lilian’s relationship is still strained. Leonard invites her to spend the evening with him and Lilian. Playfair, trying to set her up with a veteran, Mr. The revelation shocks Lilian, and the two do not speak for several days.ĭuring the course of this time, Frances endures her mother and a family friend, Mrs. Because of the intimacy of the makeover, Frances admits to Lilian that she has had a relationship with another woman in the past. She invites Frances to a family party and gives Frances a makeover. Frances begins to develop feelings for Lilian, and Lilian, too, begins to value Frances’s friendship. Frances quickly takes a liking to Lilian, however. Leonard’s personality sometimes grates on her, but she does not dislike him. The arrival of the Barbers marks a strange change in Frances’s life, which is, at first, difficult to adjust to. Frances maintains a close friendship with Christina, who has moved on to a steady relationship with a woman named Stevie. Frances is the sole housekeeper and has given up the promise of a free life with her secret girlfriend Christina for a domestic life of household chores and taking care of her aging mother. Wray had mismanaged the family wealth, leaving them with next to nothing upon his death. Emily Wray, have decided to take in lodgers, Lilian and Leonard Barber, to help cover their expenses. In interviews, Waters has said that she was inspired to write about lower class people in 1920s England after reading writers, such as Virginia Woolf, who generally did not focus on lower class people.Īt the beginning of the novel, Frances Wray and her mother, Mrs. Waters tells the story in the third person from the viewpoint of the protagonist. The novel’s themes include the strictures of class, the political construction of a judicial system, and the subjectivity of women.
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