The Paying Guests

Frances and Lilian part for the first time without “touching, without even attempting to embrace, after making the barest of arrangements for how they would deal with what came next” (387). Frances is oddly numb when she returns home. She finds her mother and Mrs. Playfair in the living room. They ask her about the new revelations and how Lilian is taking the news. Mrs. Wray feels that she has been unfair to Lilian.

Frances goes to her room to smoke a cigarette, but the moment she does, she feels sick and vomits into the hearth.

More information about Leonard’s affair comes out in the newspapers in the following days. Billie Grey is a beauty shop assistant; she met Leonard in a pub. Sargent Heath visits to tell them that “their statements were to be read at the police court on Thursday morning” and that they do not need to attend (389). He and Inspector Kempe are certain Spencer killed Leonard.

At the inquest, Frances sees Lilian’s family, but she sits alone. She feels panic when she sees “the dock for the accused” (391). As the courtroom fills up with familiar faces, a woman in her fifties sits beside her.