A Room with a View

Carriage Drive to Fiesole

The group departs Florence in carriages to see the view from Fiesole, accompanied by Italian drivers. Phaethon, whom Mr. Beebe identifies at once, drives recklessly up the stony hill, embodying a youthful spirit untouched by either religious faith or modern doubt. Lucy finds herself seated in his carriage beside Mr. Eager and Miss Lavish, with old Mr. Emerson dozing opposite, while Mr. Beebe follows behind in the second carriage with Miss Bartlett and George Emerson. The journey sets the stage for a memorable day in which the conventional behavior of English tourists collides with the freer customs of their Italian hosts.

Phaethon Brings Persephone Along for the Ride

Phaethon requests permission to pick up his “sister,” the tall, pale Persephone, who is returning with Spring to her mother’s cottage. Mr. Eager protests, suspecting imposition and warning that yielding would be “the thin edge of the wedge,” but the ladies intercede and the goddess is permitted to mount beside the god. Phaethon at once loops the left rein over her head so that he may drive with his arm around her waist, a gesture that scandalizes Mr. Eager, who sits with his back to the horses and sees nothing of the indecorous arrangement. The mythological framing invests the Italian couple with an almost sacred quality of natural passion.

Unexpected Carriage Seating Mix-Up

A seating mix-up reshuffles the intended arrangement of the party. Mr. Beebe, without consulting Mr. Eager, has doubled the size of the group, and at the critical moment Miss Bartlett and Miss Lavish lose their heads. Miss Lavish ends up in the first carriage with Lucy and Mr. Eager, while Miss Bartlett joins George Emerson and Mr. Beebe in the second. The transformation of Mr. Beebe’s hoped-for partie carrée into a more motley company vexes the chaplain, who privately resolves that a “shoddy lady writer and a journalist who had murdered his wife” shall not enter any villa at his introduction. Lucy, elegantly dressed in white, sits erect and nervous amid these explosive ingredients.