A Room with a View

Agreement to Keep the Incident Secret

When George suggests that Lucy’s mother will see the situation as clearly as he does, Lucy asks, out of cowardice, why her mother need hear of it at all. He reminds her that she tells her mother everything, but Lucy refuses to be forced into the position of someone who must hide things from Mrs. Honeychurch. She declares she would naturally have told her, but to spare him blame she promises never to speak of the incident to anyone.

Miss Bartlett Ends the Interview

Lucy’s promise brings the long interview to a sudden end. Miss Bartlett, in a brisk and efficient manner, pecks Lucy smartly on both cheeks, wishes her good-night, and sends her off to her own room.

Lucy Reflects on Wrong and Influence

For a moment the original trouble recedes, and George seems to have behaved badly throughout. Lucy neither acquits nor condemns him, refusing to pass judgement, because at the moment she was about to judge him, her cousin’s voice had intervened. Since then Miss Bartlett has dominated the situation, sighing even now through the partition. Lucy recognises that her cousin has really been neither pliable, humble, nor inconsistent, but has worked like a great artist, producing at last the picture of a cheerless, loveless world in which the young rush to destruction until they learn better. Lucy feels she is suffering from a grievous wrong: diplomatic advantage has been taken of her sincerity and her craving for sympathy and love. Such a wrong, she feels, will not easily be forgotten, and may react disastrously upon the soul.

Avoiding the Night Visitor

The door-bell rings and Lucy hurries to the shutters, but she hesitates before reaching them, turns, and blows out her candle. In this way she sees someone standing in the wet below, but he, looking up, cannot see her. She considers slipping into the passage to tell him she will be gone before he rises and that their extraordinary intercourse is over, but the opportunity is never tested.

Summoning of Mr. Emerson

At the critical moment Miss Bartlett opens her own door and summons Mr. Emerson into the drawing-room for a word. Soon their footsteps return, and Miss Bartlett bids him good-night. His heavy, tired breathing is his only reply; the chaperon has done her work.

Lucy’s Distress and Admonition

Lucy cries aloud that it is not true, that it cannot all be true, and longs not to be muddled and to grow older quickly. Miss Bartlett taps on the partition wall and admonishes her to go to bed at once, insisting she needs all the rest she can get.

Departure for Rome

In the morning the party leaves for Rome, and the chapter gives way to Part Two.

CHAPITRE VII. : They Return

The chapter opens with the group’s return from a picnic, marked by widespread confusion and disarray on the hillside as players scatter and social alignments are unclear. Lucy struggles to parse the tangled dynamics: Mr. Eager is rebuffed by Charlotte, Mr. Emerson is directed to find his son, and Mr. Beebe, acting as a neutral party, is tasked with gathering everyone for the return trip. The little god Pan, who presides over social mishaps and failed outings, is said to have been present: Mr. Beebe loses the group entirely and eats the entire surprise tea-basket alone, Miss Lavish loses Miss Bartlett, Lucy loses Mr. Eager, Mr. Emerson loses George, Miss Bartlett loses her mackintosh square, and Phaethon loses his game. Defeated and shivering, Phaethon climbs onto the carriage box, predicts imminent bad weather, and insists the group leave immediately, stating George will walk the full way back. Miss Bartlett dismisses Phaethon as a low-class cab driver whose insight will not trouble English ladies once they return to town, though she worries he might turn the incident into a tavern story. The group begins their descent toward Florence, with Lucy sitting beside Miss Bartlett and Mr. Eager sitting across from them, vaguely suspicious.