Cakes and Ale · Chapter
XXI explained
The narrator loses touch with Driffield after his examinations and travels abroad.
What happens
The narrator loses touch with Driffield after his examinations and travels abroad. He vaguely recalls reading about Driffield's divorce from Rosie. Rosie's mother receives small sums of money from New York, presumed to be from Rosie, but no address or message is included. After Mrs. Gann's death, the letters stop.
Themes in this chapter
Memory and Nostalgia
The narrator reflects on losing touch with Driffield and the fading connection to Rosie.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Loses touch with Driffield, busy with examinations, goes abroad.
- Edward Driffield
Divorces Rosie; narrator loses touch with him.
- Rosie Driffield
Divorced by Driffield; sends money to her mother from New York, but no address or message.
- Mrs. Greencourt
Rosie's mother, receives money from Rosie, dies.
Key passages
“I lost touch with Driffield. I was too shy to seek him out; I was busy with my examinations, and when I had passed them I went abroad.”
The narrator became disconnected from Driffield due to his own shyness and preoccupation with exams, and after passing them, he left the country.
Narrator's separation from Driffield.
“I remember vaguely to have seen in the paper that he had divorced Rosie.”
The narrator has a vague memory of reading in the newspaper that Driffield divorced Rosie.
Driffield's divorce from Rosie.
“Small sums reached her mother occasionally, ten or twenty pounds, and they came in a registered letter with a New York postmark; but no address was given, no message enclosed, and they were presumed to come from Rosie only because no one else could possibly send Mrs. Gann money.”
Rosie's mother occasionally received small amounts of money, ten or twenty pounds, in registered letters postmarked New York, but without any address or message, and it was assumed they were from Rosie because no one else would send money.
Rosie's anonymous financial support to her mother.