A Room with a View

Possibilities of a Pleasant Outing

Charlotte Bartlett is praised by her family as utterly unpredictable—“you never knew which way Charlotte Bartlett would turn”—yet here she behaves perfectly sensibly about Lucy’s misadventure. She accepts the abridged account without fuss and properly acknowledges Mr. George Emerson’s courtesy. She and Miss Lavish, she reports, had their own brush with difficulty on the way back: impudent young officials at the Dazio had tried to search their reticules for provisions, but Miss Lavish proved more than a match for them.

Charlotte Bartlett’s Reaction to Recent Events

For all Charlotte’s composure on the surface, Lucy’s own situation remains unresolved. None of her friends saw her either in the Piazza or later by the embankment. Mr. Beebe, noting her startled eyes at dinner, merely diagnoses “Too much Beethoven” and supposes her ripe for an adventure rather than already recovering from one. Lucy has been left to face her problem in isolation.

Lucy’s Oppressive Solitude

Lucy’s solitude oppresses her. She is accustomed to having her thoughts either confirmed or contradicted by others, and it is unbearable not to know whether she is thinking rightly or wrongly. Cut off from her usual social mirror, she feels marooned with her own confused impressions of yesterday.

Selecting the Morning Outing

At breakfast next morning Lucy takes decisive action. She must choose between two plans: Mr. Beebe’s walk up to the Torre del Gallo with the Emersons and some American ladies, or shopping and errands with Charlotte. Charlotte declines the walk for herself—she has already been in the rain there—but urges it on Lucy, who hates shopping, changing money, and fetching letters. Lucy, however, refuses, choosing Charlotte instead with real warmth. She resolves to be genuinely nice to her cousin all morning, and the two set off arm in arm.