Crome Yellow

Denis stands at the top of one of Crome’s towers, looking over the colorful Charity Fair, which has just begun. Canvas tents fill Crome’s park and garden like a miniature village. Denis watches the rides and listens to music coming from several different places, imagining that if he threw himself from the parapet, the melodies would be powerful enough to buoy him in the air. He writes a few lines of poetry in his head, including one that he especially likes: “My soul is a pale, tenuous membrane” (145).

Now looking out from the morning room, Denis sees Anne talking to some distinguished guests on the terrace. One is old Lord Moleyn, a cartoonish lord who, to Denis’s surprise, has not been banished from England; the other is Mr. Callamay, a conservative statesman known for making young women uncomfortable. He also sees old Mrs. Budge, a short, round woman whom he compares to a balloon, standing with Priscilla, who is dressed in purple with black plumes. Denis finds it inconceivable that such strange, fantastic people exist outside his own mind and are, in fact, complete human beings.

Denis goes down to the park and into the crowd, constantly aware that each person he sees is unique and alive outside his own imagination.