Maurice

Clive and Maurice’s phone conversation gives Clive hope that Maurice is willing to be friends. He views their prior relationship as a necessary step towards adulthood and wants Maurice to reach a similar realization: “But for Maurice he would never have developed into being worthy of Anne” (163).

Meanwhile, Clive basks in newlywed happiness. He initially considers revealing his relationship with Maurice to Anne, but her complete ignorance of sex prior to their wedding night dissuades him:

Secrecy suited him […] though he valued the body the actual deed of sex seemed to him unimaginative, and best veiled in night. Between men it is inexcusable, between man and woman it may be practised since nature and society approve, but never discussed nor vaunted (165).

In August, Maurice goes to Penge for a week. As he arrives, he notices a gamekeeper flirting with two maids.

Anne greets Maurice and shows him to tea. Clive is away canvassing, but Mrs. Durham and a rector named Mr. Borenius are present, and the group discusses politics. Maurice is dismissive of the lower classes’ plight: “I just don’t think about [the poor] except when I’m obliged. These slums, syndicalism, all the rest of it, are a public menace, and one has to do one’s little bit against them.