Pimlico is the setting for a late visit to Charlie’s townhouse, a scene that brings the narrator’s private hopes into contact with a settled same-sex relationship. Within Charlie’s bright, newly refurbished home, the narrator sees Charlie and Jim at ease together and imagines a comparable domestic life with his own policeman.

Setting and Arrival

The narrator travels to London hoping to see Charlie, despite the late hour and the prospect of having only a couple of hours before catching the last train back. His purpose is personal: with his policeman away, he wants to tell Charlie about him, talk openly, and describe the man in his absence. The visit also reverses an old pattern between the friends. Charlie has often been the one to recount his adventures with men; now the narrator has a story of his own to share.

Charlie does not turn him away, though he initially keeps him waiting on the front steps and explains that he already has company. The narrator insists that, unlike Charlie, he has to work the next day, making the visit a now-or-never opportunity. Charlie then invites him in to meet Jim. The brief hesitation at the threshold gives way to an introduction that places the narrator inside a domestic scene rather than leaving him outside it.

The Townhouse and Its Occupants

Charlie’s Pimlico townhouse has recently been refurbished throughout. Mirrors and steel lamps, thin-looking furniture, and modern tapestry hangings make the rooms clean, bright, and restful to the eye. The carefully renewed interior provides the setting for Jim’s unceremonious presence: he sits barefoot on Charlie’s new sofa, smoking a Woodbine, and greets the visitor without getting to his feet. Their handshake is marked by the narrator’s attention to Jim’s rust-coloured eyes.

Charlie identifies Jim as someone who works for him. Their relationship has lasted about four months. Charlie says he expected that one of them might become bored, but neither has. Jim returns with drinks, and the three spend an agreeable hour together. Charlie fills much of it with stories about people the narrator either has not seen for a long time or has never met. Jim’s presence prevents the narrator from broaching the subject he most wanted to discuss, but the visit is not simply a failed attempt at confidences.

Intimacy and Narrative Significance

The narrator watches Charlie and Jim’s unselfconscious familiarity: Charlie touches Jim’s neck, and Jim catches Charlie’s wrist. Their gestures give the narrator an image of intimacy that does not depend on a declaration. He lets himself imagine living in the same way with his policeman: sharing drinks and conversation with friends, behaving as though they were married. The townhouse thus becomes a setting in which a desired life can be pictured through another couple’s ordinary ease, even though the narrator cannot yet speak about his own relationship.

When Charlie sees him to the door alone, the narrator is glad to have a private moment with his friend. Charlie tells him he looks better than ever, and the narrator smiles. The visit has not produced the conversation he came for, but the encounter in Pimlico has given his longing a concrete form: for an hour, he has watched the kind of companionship he hopes might be possible.