# Ruth in Exile explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by P. G. Wodehouse.

## What happens

Ruth Warden works as a secretary-clerk at a pawnshop in Roville-sur-Mer, supporting her father Eugene Warden, who gambles and dreams of her marrying a rich man. A persistent and confident young man, Mr. Vince, courts her, proposing marriage and claiming she is his 'affinity,' despite her initial coldness. Ruth is torn between irritation and a growing attraction to him, as her father encourages the match.

## Themes in this chapter

### Money and Financial Struggle

Ruth works at a pawnshop to support her father's gambling habit, and Mr. Warden's schemes to marry her off for financial security highlight the theme.

### Loneliness and Connection

Ruth feels isolated and depressed, but Mr. Vince's persistent attention offers a potential connection, despite her resistance.

### Deception and Secrets

Mr. Warden's manipulative matchmaking and Ruth's hidden feelings about Mr. Vince involve elements of deception and self-deception.

## Character check-ins

### Ruth Warden

Works at the mont-de-piete, feels depressed and irritated by Mr. Vince's advances, but is drawn to him as the only exciting element in her life.

### Mr. Eugene Warden

Ruth's father, a genial gambler who hopes Ruth will marry a rich man like Mr. Vince to support him.

### Mr. Vince

A confident, wealthy young man who pursues Ruth, proposing marriage and claiming she is his 'affinity.'

## Key lines

> Ruth did not fall asleep so easily. The episode had disturbed her. A new element had entered her life, and one that gave promise of producing strange byproducts.

Ruth lay awake, troubled by the encounter, sensing that Mr. Vince's arrival would bring unpredictable changes.

_Highlights Ruth's emotional turmoil and foreshadows the impact of Mr. Vince on her life._

> Affinities are the zero on the roulette-board of life. Just as we select a number on which to stake our money, so do we select a type of girl whom we think we should like to marry. And just as zero pops up instead of the number, so does our affinity come along and upset all our preconceived notions of the type of girl we should like to marry.

Mr. Vince compares finding one's true love to the unexpected zero in roulette, overturning all prior expectations about the ideal partner.

_Illustrates Mr. Vince's philosophical and persistent courtship style._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_42_se/chapters/ruth-in-exile
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_42_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_42_se/chapters