Pleasure Reading 2. Chapter 2

The narrator spent several days in Paris early in the autumn of that year on his way to Marseilles where he met Larry for the first time after the young man had left Chicago. Larry said he spent his time in Paris loafing and reading. The following spring, Mrs. Bradley and Isabel arrived in Paris, ready to begin a long vacation. Soon the young woman asked Larry about coming back, and he told her there was no way he would. He said he was trying to find answers to philosophical questions about God and the soul. He told her that they could live off the $3,000 a year. But Isabel didn't want to live on such modest means. Unable to convince him to come back to Chicago, they agree to break off their engagement. Isabel returned to the house where her mother was staying and walked in on a tea party attended by rich, high−society people. She looked at the way they were dressed and
listened to the way they talked, realizing that this was what she needed and wanted. For her point of view this was the best way to live. Elliott helped Isabel to forget Larry. And Mrs. Bradley and her daughter went to London. There, they met more rich and important people, and Isabel could be introduced to young, rich men. The narrator visited London too. He and Isabel met in the English countryside and the young woman opened up and told him about the conversation she had with Larry that led to their breakup. Also she told Maugham about the couple's final night in Paris when they went drinking and dancing. Isabel said she had concocted a plan to seduce Larry forcing him to come back to Chicago. At the last moment, though, she had changed her mind and kissed him only.