British School at Athens

The British School at Athens is the institution David Angkatell says he plans to visit instead of staying again with Lady Angkatell at The Hollow. Its brief mention redirects David’s immediate future away from the house where a murder has made ordinary intimacy and conversation difficult, and toward Athens and an academic environment.

Mention and Immediate Context

The institution appears during Lady Angkatell’s telephone conversation with David. She hopes that he will come and stay with the family again, but acknowledges that the murder has made it difficult to get to know people and impossible to have genuinely intellectual conversation. David answers courteously but declines the implied invitation, explaining that when he comes down he is going to Athens, to the British School at Athens.

The exchange makes the school a concrete alternative to The Hollow. Lady Angkatell’s invitation attempts to restore the household’s social continuity after violence, while David’s answer establishes distance and a different destination. The institution therefore enters the narrative not through an extended description but through a decision about where David will go and what sort of company or activity he will seek.

Academic Destination and Social Contrast

David’s wording links the British School at Athens with Athens itself and with an intellectual purpose. He does not present the visit as another domestic stay or as participation in the Angkatells’ attempt to resume conversation; instead, he identifies a place associated with study and a wider scholarly world. The school consequently stands in contrast to the enclosed social atmosphere of The Hollow, where the murder has altered every interaction.

Lady Angkatell’s response continues the contrast. She immediately turns to Henry Angkatell and wonders who has the Embassy, then speculates that David would not like the family connected with it because their daughters are energetic participants in hockey, cricket, and a game involving a net. Her associative, socially comic response shifts from David’s stated academic destination to the personalities and amusements of possible hosts. The British School at Athens thus remains tied to David’s preference for a more intellectual setting, even as the surrounding conversation disperses into questions of Embassy connections and social compatibility.

Narrative Function

The British School at Athens marks a possible route out of the immediate aftermath of John Christow’s murder. David’s proposed journey does not resolve the household’s crisis, but it indicates that the younger man need not remain inside its emotional and conversational enclosure. His destination introduces geographical and institutional distance at the very moment Lady Angkatell is trying to draw him back into the family circle.

The reference also sharpens the irony of Lady Angkatell’s remark about conversation. She speaks of the difficulty of having intellectual conversation after a murder, while David names an institution conventionally associated with intellectual work as his destination. The school consequently functions less as a fully depicted setting than as a compact counter-image to the disturbed domestic world: Athens and academic study suggest movement outward, whereas The Hollow remains the place where murder has made social familiarity precarious.