Dangerous Ages · Chapter
XIII: The Daughter explained
Mrs.
What happens
Mrs. Hilary travels to Rome to confront Nan about her affair with Stephen Lumley. Their tense reunion includes a visit to the Forum and a bitter quarrel about Nan's choices, Barry Briscoe's engagement to Gerda, and family troubles. The chapter ends with a fragile moment of reconciliation as Mrs. Hilary comforts a weeping Nan, though the underlying rift remains.
Themes in this chapter
Generational Conflict
The central conflict between Mrs. Hilary and Nan over Nan's affair and lifestyle choices, reflecting the clash between Victorian propriety and modern independence.
Love, Marriage, and Freedom
Nan's choice to live with Stephen Lumley outside marriage, and Gerda's refusal to marry Barry despite love, explore the tension between personal freedom and societal expectations.
Family Dynamics and Maternal Influence
The fraught mother-daughter relationship, with moments of tenderness and deep misunderstanding, highlights the complex bonds and failures of maternal comfort.
Characters to notice
- Rosalind Hilary
Travels to Rome to confront Nan; struggles with travel, memories of Richard, and her own psychoanalytic treatment; oscillates between anger and maternal concern.
- Nan Hilary
Defiantly living with Stephen Lumley in Rome; tries to keep emotional distance from her mother but breaks down crying over her lost love for Barry; decides to go away with Stephen.
- Gerda
Discussed by Mrs. Hilary and Nan; Gerda is refusing marriage to Barry despite being in love, but Nan predicts she will eventually give in.
- Barry Briscoe
Mentioned as being desperately in love with Gerda; Nan still loves him and is heartbroken over losing him.
- Neville Bendish
Reported by Mrs. Hilary as 'extremely ill' and worried about Gerda's refusal to marry.
- Stephen Lumley
Nan's lover; she plans to leave with him; described as having cynical humour and a clear, keen mind.
Key passages
“During her mother’s breathless outbreak at Stephen Lumley, standing courteous and surprised before her, she had crossed her Rubicon. And now with flaming words she burned her boats.”
Nan had made an irreversible decision during her mother's emotional confrontation with Stephen Lumley, and now she was destroying any chance of retreat.
Nan's determination to leave with Stephen is final, despite her mother's pleas.
“Sal volatile eases the head and nervous system and composes the manners, but no more than tears does it quench flames.”
Smelling salts can calm the body and improve behavior, but they cannot extinguish emotional fire any more than crying can.
The limits of physical remedies for deep emotional conflict.
“A good bridge, but one inadequate for the strain of daily traffic. The child, having dried its tears, watches the bridge break again, and thinks it a pity but inevitable.”
The moment of reconciliation between mother and daughter is a temporary connection that cannot withstand the pressures of everyday life; the daughter accepts its fragility.
The fleeting nature of their emotional bond and Nan's resignation.