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A Room with a View
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===Part two=== In Rome Lucy spends time with Cecil Vyse, whom she knew in England. Cecil twice proposes to Lucy in Italy; she rejects him both times. As Part Two begins, Lucy has returned to [[Surrey]], England, to her family home, Windy Corner. Cecil proposes yet again and this time she accepts. Cecil is a sophisticated London aesthete whose rank and class make him a desirable match despite his despising country society; he is a rather comic figure, who is snobbish and gives himself pretentious airs. The [[vicar]], Mr. Beebe, announces that a local villa has been leased; the new tenants are the Emersons, who, after a chance meeting with Cecil in London, learned about the villa being available. Cecil enticed them to come to the village as a comeuppance to the villa's landlord, Sir Harry Otway, whom Cecil (who believes himself to be very democratic) thinks is a snob. Lucy is angry with Cecil, as she had tentatively arranged for the elderly Misses Alan, who had also been guests at the Pensione Bertolini, to rent the villa. Fate takes an ironic turn as Mr. Beebe introduces Lucy's brother, Freddy, to the Emersons. Freddy invites George for "a bathe" in a nearby pond in the woods. Freddy, George and Mr. Beebe go there. Freddy and George undress and jump in, eventually persuading Mr. Beebe to join them. The men enjoy themselves, frolicking and splashing in and out of the pond and running through the bushes until Lucy, her mother and Cecil, having taken a short-cut through the woods during their walk, come upon them. Freddy later invites George to play tennis at Windy Corner. Although Lucy is initially mortified by facing both George and Cecil she resolves to be gracious. Cecil annoys everyone by pacing around and reading aloud from a light romance novel that contains a scene suspiciously reminiscent of George's kissing Lucy in Fiesole. George catches Lucy alone in the garden and kisses her again. Lucy realizes that the novel was written by Miss Lavish (the writer-acquaintance from Florence) and that Charlotte must thus have told her about the kiss. Furious with Charlotte for betraying her secret, Lucy forces her cousin to watch as she orders George to leave Windy Corner and never return. George argues that Cecil sees Lucy only as an "object for the shelf" and will never love her enough to grant her independence, whereas he loves her for who she is. Lucy is moved but remains firm. Later that evening, after Cecil again rudely declines to play tennis, Lucy sees Cecil for what he truly is and ends their engagement. She decides to flee to Greece with the two Misses Alan. Meanwhile, George, unable to bear being around Lucy, is moving his father back to London, unaware Lucy has broken off her engagement. Shortly before Lucy's departure she accidentally encounters Mr. Emerson at Mr. Beebe's house. He is unaware that Lucy is no longer engaged and Lucy is unable to lie to him. With open, honest talk Mr. Emerson strips away her defenses, forcing her to admit she has been in love with George all along. He also mentions how his wife had "gone under"—lost the will to live—because she feared that George's contracting typhoid at the age of 12 was a punishment for his not being baptized. Her fear was the result of a visit by the stern clergyman Mr. Eager, and the incident explains Eager's later claim that Mr. Emerson had "murdered his wife in the sight of God". The novel ends in Florence, where George and Lucy have [[elope]]d without Mrs. Honeychurch's consent. However Lucy has learned that Charlotte knew that Mr. Emerson was at Mr. Beebe's that fateful day and had not discouraged nor prevented her from going in and encountering him. Although Lucy "had alienated Windy Corner, perhaps for ever" (although the appendix implies a reconciliation with her family), the story ends with the promise of lifelong love for both her and George.
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