G. H. Barrow

G. H. Barrow is an American delegation member encountered on the way to Rome and later in Paris. He moves between public argument and personal appeal: aboard a crowded train he talks at length about Woodrow Wilson’s program for peace, while in Paris he pursues Anne Elizabeth and asks her not to leave. His earnest political language and his longing for love become closely intertwined.

Introduction and Characterization

Barrow first appears when Captain Savage is preparing to sleep in a reserved compartment on a crowded train bound for Rome. Attached to the American delegation, Barrow explains that he has no seat and asks to share the compartment; he brings a young woman working with Near East Relief. Though Savage objects that accommodating them would violate his orders, he relents as the train starts. Barrow’s entrance is marked by an awkward, conspicuous manner of speaking: he stammers through his request, and the narration likens the rhythm of his voice to a poorly running motorboat.

The journey establishes him as persistent and politically absorbed. While Savage dozes, Barrow talks through the European situation, repeatedly invoking Woodrow Wilson and ideas including a new European diplomacy, lasting peace without annexations or indemnities, and industrial democracy. His words continue as the train rattles on, becoming part of Savage’s confused dream. Barrow thus registers not through political action in the scene but through the sheer continuance of his speech, which fills the compartment even when his exhausted listener has withdrawn from it.

Political Convictions and Public Speech

Barrow’s faith in Wilson’s political project recurs in his later conversation with Anne Elizabeth. When she calls him, he is delighted and offers to take her to lunch in the Bois. On the way there, he talks about the Peace Conference and presents Wilson as fighting to preserve his principles against secret treaties and experienced political opponents. He describes the outcome as a choice between a better world and a future of Bolshevism and despair, placing their private meeting briefly inside the grand language of international crisis.

His rhetoric is fervent and expansive, but the story shows it in ordinary social settings: first in the cramped train compartment, then during a cab ride to lunch. In both, political argument is something Barrow keeps speaking into the space around him. The contrast between the scale of his claims and the intimate circumstances of the conversations gives his public idealism a distinctive personal quality without establishing how much influence he has over the negotiations themselves.

Courtship of Anne Elizabeth

In Paris, Barrow’s relationship with Anne Elizabeth develops through an invitation to lunch and a later evening together. She calls him after a painful morning, and he responds enthusiastically, promising to collect her. He arrives in a grey flannel suit and fedora; she feels drab in the dark uniform she dislikes. At lunch he offers buoyant company, joking about love and spring and promising to talk while she eats. Their exchange is tentative: she tells him she may or may not explain what is troubling her, while he readily takes on the role of keeping the conversation going.

Later, after they dance and go to the bar, Barrow urges her not to sail and says he will try to arrange matters through the Red Cross. He presents his appeal as an answer to loneliness and to a life spent pursuing ideals without attaining happiness. His manner is insistent, and Anne Elizabeth does not return his declaration: she tells him she cannot love anyone now because she has everybody. Her response marks the limit of his courtship. Barrow’s political devotion and desire for personal happiness meet in the same appeal, but the scene does not grant him the reciprocal attachment he seeks.