A Room with a View

Cecil makes a catastrophic decision, thinking he's being clever. Sir Harry Otway owns a cottage called Cissie Villa that needs tenants. The Miss Alans (elderly ladies) were interested, but Cecil finds their middle-class niceness boring. Then by chance he meets the Emersons in London - yes, THOSE Emersons from Florence - and in a moment of intellectual mischief, he arranges for them to rent the cottage instead. Cecil thinks this is brilliant: he'll install these "interesting" lower-class men in Sir Harry's cottage as a social experiment, scoring points against provincial snobbery while educating Lucy about authentic people. He has absolutely no idea what he's done. When Lucy discovers the Emersons will be her neighbors, she's horrified. She accuses Cecil of being disloyal, of undoing her work with the Miss Alans, of making her look ridiculous. Cecil completely misunderstands her fury - he thinks she's being snobbish, upset that working-class people are replacing refined ladies. "Temper!" he thinks. "No, worse than temper—snobbishness." He's pleased with himself, believing these tenants will have "educational" value. He'll "tolerate the father and draw out the son." Cecil has no idea that George Emerson kissed his fiancée in a violet field in Italy, that Lucy fled to Rome to escape those feelings, that she's spent months trying to forget. And now, thanks to Cecil's intellectual games, the man who awakened her to genuine passion will be living down the road. The past she's been running from has just moved in next door. The chapter ends with cruel irony: Cecil thinks he's being progressive and bringing "Truth" to Windy Corner. He has no idea he's just detonated his own engagement.