A Room with a View

They Return

The party returns from the hillside in disorder, each member having “lost” someone or something. Mr. Beebe has lost everyone and eaten the tea alone; Mr. Emerson cannot find George; Miss Bartlett has lost her mackintosh square; and Phaethon has lost the game. The narrator reflects that Phaethon alone divined the truth of what passed between Lucy and George. Miss Bartlett reassures herself that the real danger lies not with cabmen but with drawing-room people like Mr. Eager, who eyes Lucy with vague suspicion during the descent.

Phaethon Demands Immediate Departure

Still smarting from defeat, Phaethon climbs onto the box shivering and demands their immediate departure, announcing that “the signorino will walk” behind. Mr. Beebe protests that the boy will be hours. Phaethon refuses to look at anyone, mortified that he alone had used his instinct and read the message of the dying man—knowledge the uncomprehending English gained too late.

Stormy Ride and Tram Accident

Rain and darkness overtake the carriages. Mr. Eager lectures Lucy on the blasphemy of fearing the elements, while beneath the rug Miss Bartlett presses Lucy’s hand in a sympathetic gesture that costs her little but means much. When they stop, Miss Bartlett sends Mr. Eager away and offers Phaethon a franc, which he accepts with a “Va bene.” An explosion up the road reveals a tram support has fallen; the group treats the near-miss as miraculous and embraces in a flood of feeling. Mr. Eager calls it “typical behaviour” for the Emersons to break down in reality, but Lucy knows Phaethon saw everything.

Lucy’s Confession to Miss Bartlett

Lucy pours out her soul to her cousin during the long drive. She confesses to having had “silly thoughts” about George, comparing him to gods and heroes from books, though she was not truly to blame. Miss Bartlett listens and draws her close, and they return to the city hand in hand. Back at the pension, Charlotte delays with a long story about lost luggage, and only at a late hour do they retreat to her room. There Lucy expects to describe her sensations in “divine confidence,” but Miss Bartlett immediately turns the conversation to practical damage control: how to silence George.

Decision to Flee to Rome

Pressed by her cousin, Lucy first insists she wishes to be truthful but then admits she no longer does. She resolves to speak to George herself, terrifying Miss Bartlett, who warns that men of his type boast of their exploits and that a woman unprotected by her sex may be insulted with impunity. Charlotte sighs for “a real man”—for Lucy’s brother, whose chivalry would avenge her. Then she announces the decision: they will take the morning train to Rome.

Packing and Miss Bartlett’s Remorse

They begin packing by candlelight. Lucy is seized by an impulse of human love and kneels to embrace her cousin, but Charlotte responds with a long, manipulative self-reproach: she has failed in her duty to Lucy’s mother, she should never have befriended Miss Lavish, the tour has been a disaster. Lucy protests that none of it is Charlotte’s fault, but the older woman’s martyrdom—struggling with the trunk straps while sighing over her own uselessness—casts a pall over their final evening in Florence. They continue to pack in silence, the hope that they love each other “heart and soul” still clinging between them.

CHAPITRE VII.

Chapter VII traces the aftermath of the confession scene in the Piazza della Signoria. Lucy promises Miss Bartlett to keep the incident secret from her mother, an exchange that abruptly ends the intense interview. Left alone, Lucy reflects on the wrong done to her and on the manipulative influence her cousin has exerted. That night she hides from George Emerson at the window, while Miss Bartlett intervenes to dismiss him from the drawing-room. Distraught, Lucy cries out against the muddle of her situation, and Miss Bartlett sends her to bed. The chapter closes with the party departing for Rome the next morning, marking the transition into Part Two.