Casanova's Chinese Restaurant - post III

The stresses of marriage are quickly on display as Moreland falls in love with Priscilla Tolland and upsets his wife, who reveals some of her past to Jenkins, including some of her former romances.

She can clearly read her husband like a book but the moment he actually concludes his symphony and Mrs Foxe throws a party for him. The Symphony is received with cautious praise from the critics Maclintick and Gossage who sum up that it is not bad but it is not outstanding.

But Moreland doesn’t have time to dwell on it because he ends up in a corner with a very drunk, but very amusing, Stringham. Although at his own mother’s home it is quite clear that Mrs Foxe would rather her son leave. Before he goes he also recalls some of the reasons why his marriage failed. It is genuinely amusing but tinged with sadness that the bright young thing of the first pages of the first volume has been reduced to a family embarrassment. Mind you it does make you smile the way Powell captures a character at full drink fuelled tilt.

More tomorrow…