Contents
Chapter 5
Overview
During a lavish, drunken party at Rosehill, child Mabel encounters a glamorous guest, Susan, who obliquely references someone named Kitty. Elliott intervenes and later labels Mabel “mad,” deepening her shame and isolation. The chapter closes with adult Mabel’s sardonic inventory of her father’s only redeeming traits: his hair and luxurious socks.
Summary
Awakened by revelry, young Mabel wanders into her parents’ smoke-filled party searching for Mary. A mustached guest, Arthur, sloppily confirms her parentage before Mary spins Mabel like a doll, then hurriedly sends her to bed to avoid Elliott’s temper. Mabel hides by the grand mahogany staircase to watch the drunken guests.
A glamorous guest, Susan, sits beside Mabel and casually remarks that Mabel must regret “what happened to Kitty,” startling Mabel. Elliott appears, orders Mabel upstairs, then confronts Susan. From the landing, Mabel overhears Elliott forbid any mention of Kitty and coolly declare, “The child is mad,” leaving Mabel stained with shame.
In reflective narration, adult Mabel catalogs the two things she liked about Elliott: his thick, Cary Grant–like hair obsessively tended with Brylcreem, and his exquisite Harrods sock collection. Her darkly comic aside—imagining murdering him yet keeping the socks—underscores long-standing resentment and the emotional damage reinforced by that night.
Who Appears
- Mabel Waller (Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick)Child narrator; witnesses party, hears father call her “mad,” internalizes shame; later reflects bitterly on him.
- Elliott WallerMabel’s father; controlling and vain; forbids discussion of Kitty and labels Mabel mad; obsessed with hair and socks.
- Mary WallerMabel’s alcoholic mother; playful then dismissive, twirls Mabel and hustles her back to bed during the party.
- SusanGlamorous guest who befriends Mabel briefly and mentions Kitty, provoking Elliott’s intervention.
- ArthurDrunken guest who sloppily queries Mabel’s parentage and flirts; incidental to the scene’s tension.