A Room with a View: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

The narrator sums up the events of the afternoon, which had played out like “some complicated game.” The driver says that bad weather is coming in, and wants to hurry, so everyone leaves without George, who has wandered off on his own, leaving him to walk back. A storm begins as the party rides back into Florence, and two close lightning strikes cause Miss Lavish and Lucy to scream.

Worried, Mr. Emerson asks Mr. Eager to ask the driver where George is. Charlotte, meanwhile, slips some money to the driver, who saw the kiss earlier, and asks him not to tell anyone about it. Ahead of the carriage on the road, lightning strikes the wire of a tramline, and a support falls. The carriage stops in time to avoid being hit by it, and everyone feels “the floods of love and sincerity,” at coming so close to a disaster.

Emotional, Lucy apologizes to Charlotte and says that Charlotte warned her to be careful, but she simply thought she was “developing.” She tries to explain what had happened on the river with George, and then assures Charlotte that she is “not to blame,” for the kiss. But then she admits that she is “a little to blame,” and says that when she saw George among the flowers she thought he looked like something out of a book of mythology. She tells Charlotte that she wants to be truthful and says, “It is so hard to be absolutely truthful.”

Charlotte consoles Lucy and tells her that everything is okay. The storm calms down as the carriage enters Florence. Back at the Pension, Lucy thinks of “how she should describe,” what has happened with George and her—“all her sensations, her spasms of courage, her moments of unreasonable joy, her mysterious discontent.” She hopes to “disentangle and interpret” all her feelings.

Lucy talks with Charlotte in her room, and Charlotte asks her “what is to be done?” She asks how they are to “silence” George, and Lucy says that she is sure George will not say anything about the event to anyone. Charlotte says that George does not seem like the type to keep quiet about his “exploits,” and says that he is not wicked, but is “thoroughly unrefined.” Lucy suggests that she speak to George to settle the matter.

Charlotte is reluctant to agree to Lucy’s plan, since Lucy is “so young and inexperienced,” that she doesn’t “realize what men can be.” Charlotte asks what Lucy would have done if Charlotte had not happened upon George and her, and Lucy has no answer. Charlotte wishes that a “real man” like Lucy’s brother were present, to help them with the situation. Charlotte tells Lucy that they will take a train to Rome the next day.

As Charlotte and Lucy start to pack their things, Lucy feels inexplicably compelled to embrace Charlotte. Charlotte returns the gesture, and then apologizes for vexing Lucy “at every turn.” She says she is “too uninteresting and old-fashioned,” and has failed Lucy, as well as failing Lucy’s mother in not protecting her.

Lucy insists that Charlotte is not to blame for anything, and promises that she will not tell her mother about what has happened. The narrator comments that Charlotte had “worked like a great artist,” and taken advantage of Lucy’s “craving for sympathy and love.” George finally returns to the Pension and Lucy considers saying goodbye to him, but Charlotte finds him first and has a talk with him. From her own room, Lucy cries out, “I want not to be muddled. I want to grow older quickly.” Charlotte suggests she go to bed.