The Paying Guests

Both Frances and Lilian are excited about their scheduled walk together. They stroll through town, and Frances describes sites from her childhood. They eat a picnic lunch and Lilian relaxes into her real self once again. The two women “seemed to pick up the thread of their intimacy exactly where they had left it in the shadowy kitchen” (83).

Frances asks how Lilian and Leonard met. They met during the war at her stepfather’s shop. Their relationship progressed quickly. Len was relatively unscathed by the war, unlike many other Englishmen. Lilian suspects that they never really meant to marry each other: it was the seriousness of the war. The two of them frequently argue.

Lilian tells Frances never to get married. She enquires about the proposal Frances hinted at on Saturday. Before Frances can think of how to answer her, a man interrupts their solitude, hovering a few meters away. He makes advances toward Lilian, but Frances rebuffs him. He sees Frances as a suffragette and leaves.

Frances tells Lilian about her younger days, when she was arrested at a political meeting. The event was scandalous for her family. Lilian is incredulous. They stroll on, arm in arm, only separating to cross a busy road on the way home.