The Ritz is a named hotel whose brief appearances connect private romantic memory with family celebration. For Emma Harte, it is inseparable from the days she spent there with Paul McGill, a past that returns with force when they meet again; later, Daisy McGill and David Amory spend their single honeymoon night there after marrying during the war.

A setting of remembered intimacy

Years after her time with Paul at The Ritz, Emma is sitting with him and Frank Harte when Paul’s unexpected presence unsettles her. Their casual conversation does not lessen the force of the encounter: she recalls their days at the hotel and the longing she once felt for Paul. The place thus enters the reunion not through a new visit, but through Emma’s memory, making the past an active part of her response to him.

A wartime honeymoon

The Ritz appears again as the destination for Daisy and David’s one-night honeymoon. Their wedding is deliberately quiet amid wartime conditions, and after a small reception at Emma’s house, David returns to Biggin Hill while Daisy goes back to her mother’s home. The brief stay at The Ritz marks the beginning of their married life, while the couple’s immediate return to separate wartime duties limits the honeymoon to a single night.

Narrative significance

These two uses give The Ritz contrasting but related associations. For Emma, it holds the emotional afterlife of a love remembered through separation and hurt; for Daisy and David, it offers a short ceremonial pause at the start of marriage. The hotel’s recurrence links generations without making their experiences identical: a charged memory for Emma, and a compact celebration for the younger couple.