National Gallery

The National Gallery is a London meeting place for John Marcher and May Bartram during the growing intimacy that follows their reunion at Weatherend. Their visits there, alongside visits to the South Kensington Museum, mark a change in the rhythm of their relationship: shared memories remain present, but their conversations no longer simply retrace the ignorance and impressions of youth.

Visits and Conversations

After May’s great-aunt dies, the complicated will eventually allows May to establish a small home in London. Marcher and May meet there during this period, and on more than one occasion they go together to the National Gallery. At the gallery, they talk about Italy broadly, with vivid reminders of their earlier travels around them. The account does not identify particular artworks or describe the gallery’s collections; its importance lies in the conversations and companionship the visit makes possible.

Place in Their Relationship

The gallery visits belong to a new phase of the bond between Marcher and May. Their first afternoon at Weatherend had helped them recover the taste of their younger selves and their former ignorance; by the time they meet at the National Gallery, that recovery has served its purpose. Marcher feels that they are no longer lingering near the headwaters of their shared stream, but have been set moving down its current. The gallery thus figures not as a destination in its own right, but as one of the London settings in which recollection gives way to an unfolding life together.