Pompeii is the true setting of a remembered encounter between John Marcher and May Bartram: during a violent thunderstorm, they took refuge in an excavation while an important find was being made. The corrected location matters because Marcher initially placed the episode elsewhere, making Pompeii part of May’s evidence that his confident recollections of their shared past were unreliable.

The Corrected Recollection

At Weatherend, Marcher began recalling the circumstances of his earlier meeting with May, but she corrected several details. Their acquaintance had begun in Naples, not Rome, and the storm that drove them into an excavation had occurred at Pompeii, not at the Palace of the Caesars. May could supply evidence for her corrections, while Marcher accepted them.

The episode is identified only by its setting and circumstances: a violent thunderstorm, shelter in an excavation, and their presence during an important find. The account does not specify what was found or describe the site further.

Narrative Significance

Pompeii anchors one of the few concrete shared memories that the pair recover. Yet the correction makes the memory less a proof of Marcher’s attentiveness than a measure of its limits: he had recalled the dramatic storm but misplaced its setting, while May retained the particulars. In the conversation, the error contributes to their recognition that the past had given them only a handful of slight incidents, not the substantial shared history Marcher’s initial confidence seemed to promise.