Anne Elizabeth Sistair and George H. Barrow

Anne Elizabeth Sistair and George H. Barrow move between companionship and romantic pursuit without establishing a lasting partnership. Their connection begins in the practical intimacy of wartime travel, deepens through conversation and Barrow’s offers of sympathy, and becomes increasingly strained as Anne Elizabeth’s feelings turn toward Dick Savage and private troubles make her unwilling to accept Barrow’s advances.

Meeting and Companionship

Barrow first enters Anne Elizabeth’s story as a representative attached to the American delegation who must travel from Paris to Rome despite the train being full. He asks Captain Savage to make room in the reserved compartment, explaining that he is accompanied by a member of Near East Relief. Anne Elizabeth follows him aboard, thanks Savage for the accommodation, and shares the crowded compartment with Barrow, Savage, and a sergeant. The arrangement begins as a favor, but the overnight journey gives the two travelers time to become acquainted; by the time they reach Rome, they are using one another’s first names.

On the journey, Barrow’s attention is conspicuous. Anne Elizabeth later recalls that he had paid her considerable attention during the sea crossing to Europe, where they walked the deck arm in arm despite the rough weather. She had recently suffered an unhappy love affair and told him she needed a friend rather than another romance. Barrow responded sympathetically, describing his own disappointment in relationships and advocating freedom from restrictive conventions in love and marriage. Anne Elizabeth found this account persuasive enough to agree with the ideal of an intimate friendship without conventional demands. His conduct, however, did not always match the distance she was trying to set: when he invited her to his hotel room in Paris, she rebuked him.

Her recollection preserves both sides of that early connection. Barrow could be attentive and considerate on the crossing, and she valued his interest in her experiences, including her participation in a textile strike in New Jersey. At the same time, she understood that his attentions carried romantic expectations. Her effort to redirect him toward friendship did not end his pursuit, but neither did his pursuit immediately make her reject his company altogether.

Rome and Anne Elizabeth’s Changing Attachments

The train journey to Rome further complicates their relationship because Anne Elizabeth’s interest shifts toward Savage. During the trip, Barrow talks at length about President Wilson, a new European order, and the proposed League of Nations. Anne Elizabeth remembers these political speeches as part of the journey, but her attention increasingly settles on Savage, whose manner, language skills, and stories from the war attract her. She later recalls that, from meeting Savage, Europe seemed newly exciting; by Rome she had recognized her strong feelings for him. Barrow, who had once occupied much of her attention, had become unwelcome by comparison.

This change is not simply a clean break. Anne Elizabeth recalls that, after traveling with Savage and becoming engaged to him, she quarrelled with him. In Paris, she tells Barrow about the engagement and the quarrel while they are having lunch. Her disclosure exposes how unsettled her personal life has become, but it also makes Barrow a confidant at a moment when her attachment to Savage remains central. She speaks of her father and of giving up Joe Washburn as well, placing the new relationship with Barrow amid a history of losses and difficult attachments rather than presenting it as a fresh, uncomplicated courtship.

Barrow answers her account by asking whether she could get along with him. He reaches across the table, and Anne Elizabeth responds playfully rather than accepting or directly rejecting the proposal. His question turns their earlier ideal of friendship into an explicit personal possibility; her answer keeps the exchange open without promising him a relationship. The moment captures the imbalance between Barrow’s repeated bids for greater intimacy and Anne Elizabeth’s reluctance to make a commitment.

Paris: Offers of Help and Unspoken Trouble

At a later meeting in Paris, Barrow invites Anne Elizabeth to lunch after she calls him. He presents the outing as a chance to escape his worries about the Peace Conference, speaking at length about Wilson’s struggle to preserve his principles. Anne Elizabeth listens only fitfully. The contrast between his public preoccupations and her inward distraction shows how little political rhetoric can reach her at this point, even though such subjects had formed part of their earlier conversations.

Over lunch, she drinks wine and tells him more about her life. Barrow appears understanding, and she speaks about her father, Joe Washburn, her experience of going overseas, and her changing relationships in Rome. She says that she has found it difficult to get along with people who had once been easy companions. When she explains that she and Savage became engaged and then quarrelled, Barrow offers himself as someone who might be able to help. Anne Elizabeth says she is in serious trouble, but she does not explain its cause. After she becomes ill, a woman in the restaurant recognizes signs of pregnancy and asks whether it is her first child. Anne Elizabeth is frightened by this recognition and considers suicide; Barrow, meanwhile, offers practical assistance, asking whether she might find work in Paris as a typist or stenographer.

The offer does not restore their closeness. Anne Elizabeth resents the suggestion and returns to her hotel thinking about Savage. She decides to go home and avoids Barrow despite his calls and attempts to suggest possible jobs. Her withdrawal is not a declaration that he has become wholly irrelevant: before she sails, she agrees to dine with him and his friends. But the renewed meeting takes place while she is trying to appear composed and while the distress she has kept from him remains unresolved.

Renewed Pursuit and Unresolved Separation

At the Ritz Bar, Barrow speaks about the political difficulties surrounding the League of Nations while Anne Elizabeth drinks a cocktail and imagines how she would react if Savage appeared. When Savage enters with other companions, he does not look toward her. Anne Elizabeth says she no longer cares, then allows Barrow to kiss her during the drive toward Montmartre. The gesture signals temporary acceptance of his attention, but the narrative places it alongside her despair: she has already decided that she may kill herself. Barrow’s affection does not reach or resolve the crisis she conceals.

At dinner, Barrow continues trying to persuade her not to sail and offers to arrange work through Near East Relief. He pleads for an opportunity to make her happy and presents their connection as a chance to find personal fulfilment. Anne Elizabeth tells him she cannot love anyone, then adds that if he knew about her circumstances he would not want her. Her warning indicates that she is withholding something consequential; the earlier recognition of her pregnancy gives the reader context for her fear, though she does not disclose that fact to Barrow in the scene.

Anne Elizabeth’s attention finally moves away from Barrow during the evening. She leaves the subdued dinner-table conversation and joins a group of French aviation officers, who respond warmly when she speaks of her brother’s death. She dances with them while Barrow watches from the doorway. The episode ends without a reconciliation or a settled answer to his appeals. Their relationship remains a short-lived, uneven attachment: Barrow repeatedly offers romance, companionship, and practical help, while Anne Elizabeth accepts his kindness intermittently but turns elsewhere as her feelings and private circumstances change.