Edward Mayhew
Edward was 23 and he was a graduate student of the History Department at University College London. He was handsome and smart, he adored history and always had a paperback book from history in his pocket in case he had some spare time for reading it (and he always had): “In three short years, he had studied wars, rebellions, famines, pestilences, the rise and collapse of empires, revolutions that consumed their children, agricultural hardship, industrial squalor, the cruelty of ruling élites—a colorful pageant of oppression, misery, and failed hopes”. It seems for him, that he knew the life because he knew the history. In his final year he had made a special study of the “great man” theory of history and he was convinced that the greatness of these men depends on their luck and “naked opportunism” can bring the success.
Edward loves his wife, “the girl with the violin” and she never leaves his memories, doesn’t matter whether they are together or fortune separated them. But he is too concentrated on the sex issue, which is a little bit egotistic position, he can't understand why it is not important for Florence.
Florence Ponting
Florence was 21 when she was married. She was a musician and music was her only passion. Her biggest dream was to become a successful musician, to be the first violinist in the orchestra and she realizes this dream later. Florence was beautiful and pure: “a lovely face, with a sculpted look that in a certain light brought to mind an American Indian woman, a highborn squaw. Her violinist’s hands were pale and powerful, her long arms likewise; at her school sports days she had been adept at throwing the javelin”. She was the confident and undisputed leader when the business was music but in other spheres of her life Florence became clumsy and unsure: “The fingers that could manage the double stopping in a Bach partita were just as clever at dripping tea all over a linen tablecloth or dropping a glass onto a stone floor”.
Florence loves Edward with all of her soul: she loves his eyes, his hair, and his tie which he always wears with the white shirt. He is the whole world to her and she is happy with him. But she doesn’t want to have sex with him, the only thought of it disgusts her and she can't get over it. Edward was too selfish to understand and accept it and she didn’t see another way out except to leave him.
