Hotel Portofino

Claudine continues to help other women attract attention, including Constance, who begins to grow close to Lucian. Anish begins his own affair and considers ...

During cocktails that evening, Cecil reveals the painting from his grandfather, which Jack has authenticated in writing as a Rubens. Lucian and Constance both admire it; he is impressed by her eye. Danioni is a master of suggestion in either Italian or English. He returns a hotel towel to Cecil, telling him it was with a stolen bike at an illegal political gathering. Cecil insists to Jack that that same butler doesn’t speak English, as he gives Jack an advance of 50,000 pounds on the 100,000 they think the painting will sell for. Alice is upset to always be overlooked, both by her brother—she wasn’t invited to the ocean—and her father. The hotel has begun to make a profit, as Alice tells Bella: the tea party was successful. Rose is especially ill from the drinking, and in the cold light of day tells Lucian that she can’t join him and the others on a boat day that they planned last night. Claudine has lent her a swimsuit for the occasion, to Betty’s alarm. Cecil is about to come into money, he tells Julia as they negotiate “terms” of their children’s marriage. She is trying to be more “modern” like Bella, who continues to be kind: she gives Latchmere a bouquet with a card referencing the lady’s son who was killed in the war. He confides that he also knows what it’s like to disappoint his parents, given his father’s disinterest in him, but asks Rose to at least ask her mother if she can go on the trip. He can’t pay his bar bill, let alone lodging, he tells his wife Lizzie—he lost a substantial sum from his father wagering on himself in a tennis game. Julia has had her own conversation about Rose with Bella, who is worried that Rose isn’t ready to marry.