The Whirlpool

They sang that which he liked best---- Fear no more the heat o' the sun After it there came a minute's silence; then Harvey rose. 'Say goodbye, Hughie; we must be going home.' Hand in hand, each thinking his own thoughts, they walked homeward through the evening sunshine.

Club independence, Alma marriage after crash, Carnaby speculation, and domestic fracture resolve into father-son quiet after the whirlpool — plot sealed without courtroom or death climax, so plot scores 88.

The inconceivable had come to pass. By a word and a look Harvey had made real what he was always telling himself could never be more than a dream, and a dream of unutterable folly. … For a man of sensitive honour there could be no trilling in such a matter as this with a girl in Alma Frothingham's position.

Harvey and Alma individuated by honour-pressure after a look — imperfect epicure against ambitious girl whose position forbids trifling — so cast scores 87.

A visit was due from Mrs. Frothingham, who had not been seen at Pinner for more than six months. … 'I wish it had been Monday,' said Alma; 'I have to go to the Crystal Palace.' 'Is it imperative?' asked her husband. 'Yes; there's something new of Sterndale Bennett's, and I've asked Dora.'

Three-part domestic grind; love and moves accelerate, but concert errands and visits dilate the middle to social-realist tempo, so pace scores 84.

Harvey Rolfe was old enough to dine with deliberation, young and healthy enough to sauce with appetite the dishes he thoughtfully selected. You perceived in him the imperfect epicure. His club had no culinary fame; the dinner was merely tolerable; but Rolfe's unfinished palate flattered the second-rate cook.

Appetite and unfinished palate named without flourish — character as taste before plot crash — so prose scores 89.

Alma returned to Basingstoke, and remained there until the new house was ready for her reception. With the help of her country friends she engaged two domestics, cook and housemaid, who were despatched to Gunnersbury in advance… she would have nothing more to do with 'ideals'.

Club, Pinner, Crystal Palace, Gunnersbury domestics — suburban marriage mapped as rooms orbiting money and abandoned ideals, so world scores 88.

He knew nothing of vintages; it sufficed him to distinguish between Bordeaux and Burgundy; yet one saw him raise his glass and peer at the liquor with eye of connoisseur. All unaffectedly; for he was conscious of his shortcoming in the art of delicate living…

Connoisseur eye without knowledge establishes social appetite before the whirlpool — inviting character comedy — so hook scores 86.

Into this ambition Alma had thrown herself with no less fervour than that which carried her off to wild Wales five years ago; but her aim was now strictly 'practical', she would have nothing more to do with 'ideals'.

Artistic ideals converted into practical household ambition inside a speculation-era marriage — domestic novel fused with financial modernity — so innov scores 87.

Hand in hand, each thinking his own thoughts, they walked homeward through the evening sunshine.

After children's Shakespeare song, father and son walk in evening sun — quiet paternal closure after the whirlpool's noise — so ending scores 85.