The Truth-Teller's Gift — A Room with a View

The Miss Alans are in their temperance hotel near Bloomsbury, arming themselves for travel as if it were a war: digestive bread, quinine in tabloids, paper soap for the train. They trust Mr Vyse will see Lucy off, or join her later. It is not every young man who would be so unselfish. Mrs Honeychurch drums on her card-case. No one will see Lucy off. She hates seeings-off. In the shop she cannot say the easy true thing, that George may begin again now Cecil is gone. She repeats, instead, that she does not love George, that she broke the engagement because she does not love George, and that she must go to Greece because she does not love George. Her mother says she is tired of Windy Corner. Any company will do if Lucy can leave home. Lucy buys a Baedeker and says she comes into her money next year.

At the Rectory she gets out to fetch Charlotte and hears that the Emersons have gone. Old Mr Emerson is in Mr Beebe's study, his foot on a gout-stool. George is sorry. He thought he had a right to try, and he ought to have told his father first. She must not scold him. The old man taught the boy that when love comes, that is reality, and that passion is sanity. Lucy hides behind a book of Bible commentaries and says she will not discuss Italy or his son. He thinks she is going to marry the man she loves, and that she should not leave George's life calling him abominable. Ashamed at the mention of Cecil, she softens the word and tries to escape to church. Especially, he says, as George has gone under. As his mother did.

When the boy was twelve he caught a fever. His mother, who had agreed that baptism was nothing, called the illness a judgement. Mr Eager came while Mr Emerson was out, made her think about sin, and she went under thinking about it. That is how he murdered his wife in the sight of God. Lucy says how terrible, and then he is back in the present. George comes down tomorrow and takes him away. He must make the boy care to live. She begs him not to leave on her account. Mr Beebe comes in from church with rain on his cassock. Did she tell Mr Emerson about Greece? She did, and she has already slipped. She cannot cheat this old man. Mr Vyse is staying in England. He lifts his eyes. She is leaving the man she loves?

She lies again, with the speech she means to give the world. He says she is in a muddle, and that nothing is worse. In Santa Croce she pretended to be annoyed with him and was not. Before that she refused the room with the view. Life, a friend wrote, is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along. Then he says she loves George, body and soul, and that she will not marry the other man for his sake. How dare he. She must marry, or her life will be wasted. Though she fly to Greece and forget the name, George will work in her thoughts till she dies. She is frightened. The ticket is bought. She asks him to give George her love once only, and to say muddle. Mr Beebe opens the door and hears that she pretended. They have loved one another all along. She quavers that she will never marry him. Contempt crosses the clergyman's face. George no longer interests him. She should marry George, who will do admirably. He walks out. She turns in despair, and the old man's face revives her. Remember the mountains over Florence and the view. Truth counts. She says, "You kiss me. I will try." On the drive home she speaks at once. In later years she never exactly understood how he strengthened her. It was as if he had made her see the whole of everything at once.