Marco Polo and Susan Munro

This flow follows Marco Polo’s romance with Susan Munro from hopeful marriage through wartime separation and unresolved divorce.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Meeting in Park Street

A Singer and a Manager Encounter Marco Polo hears Miss Munro sing in a modest Park Street restaurant and becomes convinced that her voice deserves a larger stage. Her ambition and vulnerability draw him in. Attachment He sees in her a kindred orphan and imagines a future built around her talent. Attraction becomes an effort to protect and support her.

A Marriage and a Move

A Shared Beginning Commitment Marco Polo marries Susan and takes her away from Calcutta, hoping a new city will let her escape the limits of her earlier career. They settle in Rangoon. Ambition He continues to believe her singing can lead to wider recognition. Their marriage begins with affection but also with competing ideas about success.

The Wartime Divide

Different Definitions of Survival Displacement The invasion drives the couple back to Calcutta, where Marco’s foreign background complicates his search for work. Susan’s performances become a source of income. Divergence He wants her to preserve an artistic future; she values immediate earnings and popularity. Financial pressure hardens a disagreement into estrangement.

A Divorce by Design

Fabricated Adultery Plan Marco Polo and Susan arrange to pursue divorce through a false adultery accusation involving Lisa. Their lawyer warns them that collusion must remain concealed. Complication Susan and Marco depend on Lisa’s participation and money, while their arrangement rests on secrecy. The legal shortcut becomes another source of risk and shame.

A Marriage Left Unresolved

The Missing Case Discovery Marco Polo returns to find no divorce petition recorded in court and no clear trace of Susan. His marriage remains legally unsettled. Burden He commissions B. Byron to investigate, but the search initially yields no answer. The unresolved past shadows his renewed career at the Shahjahan.

Before the wartime chapters recalled by Byron

After Marco Polo brings Susan to the hotel world

After the Japanese invasion of Burma

During their separation, before Marco Polo is detained

After the war, when Marco Polo returns to Calcutta