It might seem a little odd that someone as sensible and intelligent as George would suddenly fall in love with a girl he barely knows and be willing to put everything else on hold as he goes in search of her. This is, however, directly related to the fact that George is in a rut and feels that life is stale and lonely. While he is brooding over this, Maud descends upon him- or upon his taxi- representing not only romance, but adventure and mystery. These are all things George is lacking in his life and he falls hard.
In this portion of the novel, we learn more about some of our principal characters, namely George Bevan. During his years in show business, George has avoided forming close relationships with women. The reason for this is that the ones he meets in the theater tend to be temperamental drama queens, prone to "kick" up a fuss over just about everything. He has to deal with this in a professional capacity, but has no desire to do so in his personal life. Billie Dore is the exception to this; she's level-headed and sensible, regarding her fellow actresses who take what they do too seriously, or get taken in by stage door johnnies as chumps. She and George are pals: they knew each other back in the day, when he was struggling to get his first song published and she was a stenographer. George tells Billie of his show business fatigue and she understands, as she is tired of the whole scene herself, wishing that she could give it up and move to the country to raise flowers. It might seem a little odd that someone as sensible and intelligent as George would suddenly fall in love with a girl he barely knows and be willing to put everything else on hold as he goes in search of her. This is, however, directly related to the fact that George is in a rut and feels that life is stale and lonely. While he is brooding over this, Maud descends upon him- or upon his taxi- representing not only romance, but adventure and mystery. These are all things George is lacking in his life and he falls hard. The character of Percy is comedic gold. He is a ridiculous delight, with his sartorial affectations and snobbish pretension. Used to being deferred to by his servants, indulged by his aunt, and endured by the rest of his family, Percy is genuinely shocked when George casually refuses to obey his commands. He is even more so when George demonstrates his lack of respect for the aristocracy physically as well as verbally. Having no idea how to respond to mockery and push back, Percy loses his temper, the upshot being that he ends up punching a police officer, which lands him in the local lockup, the ultimate shock to his superior sensibilities.
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