Claire Daniels and Max

Claire Daniels and Max von Strohheim are lovers whose intention to marry is obstructed by Claire’s existing marriage to Homer Clegg. Their relationship is marked by a practical bargain as well as affection: Max wants to make their union respectable, Claire is drawn to his wealth and to the life he offers, and both must wait on a divorce that neither initially controls. The obstacle appears to yield in Reno, but the story closes with their future still prospective rather than settled.

A Marriage Blocked by Another Marriage

When Claire returns to her daughter, Georgiana Rannoch, she makes clear that her relationship with Max von Strohheim has not ended. Max is insisting that they do the right thing and marry, although Claire remains legally married to Homer Clegg, a Texan oilman who has refused to divorce her. Her earlier account of Homer explains why she left: she had not understood that his religious convictions would lead him to expect her to live on a ranch in Texas. She presents that prospect as incompatible with the life she wants, recalling the ranch alongside the restrictions she disliked at Castle Rannoch.

The impediment is therefore both legal and personal. Claire wants a future with Max, but her first marriage remains a binding fact, not merely an old attachment she can disregard. She asks whether Homer might have died or whether she must persuade him to release her; neither is the route she expects to take. Instead, she has heard that Nevada offers a way around a spouse who refuses consent. Her confidence in a solution precedes her understanding of its conditions.

The Nevada Divorce Plan

Claire’s proposed journey is organized around obtaining that divorce. She expects to spend a few days in New York City, then cross the country by train to Reno, Nevada, and return within about a month. Max, she says, pines when she is away too long; his impatience gives the trip a romantic urgency, while its itinerary reveals how much practical work stands between the couple and marriage. Claire has also been told that Homer need not appear for the divorce under the right circumstances, which makes Nevada seem a route around his refusal rather than a negotiation with him.

That expectation meets a concrete qualification when Claire discusses the plan with Cy Goldman and Stella Brightwell. Stella explains that Nevada requires six weeks of residency. Claire is dismayed: she had imagined a quick divorce, not a prolonged stay. The requirement makes visible the gap between the easy solution she has been promised and the time the process actually demands. Her planned month away may not be enough, and Max’s wish to marry cannot by itself remove the legal delay.

Claire also understands divorce as part of a wider set of social and religious restrictions. She tells an American acquaintance that the Prince of Wales could not marry a divorced woman if he became king, because the monarch would head the Church of England, which does not accept divorce. Her remark expresses a firm view of the limits imposed by English tradition. The contrast is notable: while she regards royal marriage as constrained by custom, she tries to use Nevada’s residency rules to secure freedom from her own marriage and proceed with Max.

The Life Max Offers

Claire’s commitment is not presented as a simple decision to exchange England for Germany. When Georgiana asks whether she truly wants to marry Max and live there, Claire answers by stressing his wealth and her attraction to him, rather than describing a settled plan for life in Germany. She acknowledges that she does not speak German and dislikes German food. Her answer suggests that marriage is desirable to her even though the country and its daily life remain unfamiliar.

She has, however, found a way to make that prospect less absolute. Max bought her the villa in Lugano that they had been renting, after seeing how much she loved it. Claire regards the house as a bolt-hole in Switzerland: a place of her own alongside the future she contemplates with him. She says she can tolerate spending a week or two in Berlin when necessary and promises to learn German. Her willingness to adapt is qualified by her hope that Hitler will not remain in power for long. The relationship thus carries both a pledge of accommodation and a safeguard against complete dependence on Max’s home and country.

Max’s influence also shapes Claire’s choices beyond the question of where to live. In California, Stella Brightwell and Cy Goldman try to persuade her to appear in a film. Claire resists, worrying that Max would disapprove and that others would see her as a has-been attempting a comeback. She also says she has no time for Hollywood because the visit is short and she must return to Max in Germany. Her refusal links her public image and professional opportunity to the future she imagines with him: she will not readily take on a new career when her stated priority is to go back to her partner.

Reversal in Reno and an Unsettled Future

The plan changes when Claire and Georgiana eventually travel to Reno. On the way, Claire fears that Homer has learned of her scheme and will never divorce her, leaving Max unable to marry her. At the ranch, she goes to find Homer while Georgiana waits. Claire soon returns with the news that he did not even know she was there. More importantly, Homer has come to Reno because he wants a quick divorce himself: he has found someone he wishes to marry and is no longer insisting on the religious objection that had kept Claire bound to him.

The reversal clears the immediate obstacle from Claire’s account of the relationship. She expects that the divorce will be completed within days, after which she and Max will be free to go home. Yet the novel reports her expectation, not the completed divorce or a wedding. Her relief is sufficient to end the immediate crisis, but the legal resolution remains in the future at the moment she describes it.

The closing arrangements preserve that uncertainty. On August 7, Georgiana says that she does not want to return to Castle Rannoch and expects Claire to leave for Max. Claire’s departure to Germany is treated as the likely next step, but the narrative does not confirm that she has reached Max or married him. Their relationship has moved from an obstructed proposal toward an anticipated reunion; its decisive promise is freedom to marry, while its final fulfillment remains outside the account.