A Handful of Dust: Chapter 2: English Gothic—I Summary & Analysis

As the day begins, Tony Last lays in bed at Hetton, reflecting on the estate: the neo-Gothic style of its 1860s renovation has become ridiculous to modern tastes, but Tony is confident that it will come back in style. He knows that maintaining such a sprawling, archaic house is expensive and inconvenient, but his sentimental attachment to the estate runs deep. He grew up here and still sleeps in his childhood bedroom—named, like all the rooms in the house, after figures from Arthurian legend (his is Morgan le Fay). These days, the pseudo-medieval décor throughout the house is in a state of mild disrepair, but Tony doubts whether he could find craftsmen today with the skill and subtlety that the repairs would demand.

Tony rouses himself, heads down to Brenda Last’s room, and joins her in her bed, an uncharacteristically modern piece of furniture that she had insisted upon having. The two canoodle while she goes through the morning mail, reporting various social invites, and then reads aloud from the newspaper. Brenda reads the sensational news of violent crimes in the same casual tone as the local puff pieces, among which are featured her brother Reggie, an explorer, and Jock Grant-Menzies, who’s a member of Parliament.

Brenda then reads from a serialized story in the paper and surprises Tony with a pop quiz, exposing him for not paying attention. Tony similarly shows no interest in the social invites they’ve received and dismisses them all out of hand. He dislikes company, whether in the form of leaving Hetton or of hosting guests. Brenda complains that having a huge house with such expensive upkeep is “pointless” without having guests, offending Tony. Their spat, however, is only mild and playful. 

Outside, Tony and Brenda’s young son John Andrew practices riding on his horse Thunderclap—a gift from his uncle Reggie—with Ben, the gruff stable tender. Ben entertains John Andrew with uncouth stories about livestock, including a mule named Peppermint, who drank a whole WWI troop’s rum supply in the trenches and died. Ben has also taught John Andrew to swear, horrifying the boy’s prim nanny: he calls her a “silly old tart,” and she reports his language to his parents, blaming Ben for the crass behavior John Andrew has started to exhibit.

Tony and Brenda are privately amused by John Andrew’s insult to the nanny, but Tony feels he must reprimand him anyhow. He explains to John Andrew that Ben is of a lower class and his behavior must not be emulated. John Andrew, however, claims to love Ben more than his own mother. Tony gets serious and tells John Andrew that Hetton will one day belong to him, and that he must learn to act the part of a gentleman and “be considerate to people less fortunate than you, particularly women.” As punishment for John Andrew’s swearing, Tony tries to take away a day’s riding, but he easily folds under his son’s complaints. John Andrew, meanwhile, continues to casually swear.

Tony and Brenda dine alone in their palatial dining hall, which varies wildly in temperature despite their several attempts to stabilize it. Though both healthy, they adhere to a fad diet barring starch and proteins from the same meal, as a way to add structure and interest to their meals.

Suddenly, a telegram arrives from John Beaver, announcing his imminent arrival by train. Tony is aghast that Beaver has actually accepted his insincere invitation, and he begins plotting how to make his stay uncomfortable enough that he’ll swiftly leave. Brenda does not know Beaver but supports Tony’s plan, recalling with displeasure that they owe his mother Mrs. Beaver some money. She volunteers to entertain Beaver while Tony flees to his chores.

Brenda feels less self-conscious without Tony around and actually enjoys chatting with John Beaver as they stroll around the grounds. Beaver updates Brenda on the London gossip and social happenings from which she has been largely absent. When Beaver mentions Polly Cockpurse’s upcoming party, Brenda says that she and Tony were invited but don’t expect to go, since “[w]e never go anywhere nowadays.”

John Andrew arrives and begins rattling off crude questions to the new guest, forcing John Beaver to admit that he is poor and unemployed—though he remains cool while doing so. That evening, Tony joins Beaver and Brenda for dinner, and then they all go to a movie that Beaver has seen before but pretends like he hasn’t. Tony assigns Beaver to a terrible room for the night but then feels guilty about it. Beaver passes a sleepless night in his uncomfortable bed. Brenda, meanwhile, seems to like Beaver fine.

The next day, Tony once again leaves Brenda with John Beaver—who has decided to return home early, as Tony hoped. Tony goes to the estate church, as is his custom, enjoying chat with the villagers. On the way, John Andrew recounts Ben’s vulgar story of Peppermint the mule, killed by his rum consumption. Tony finds this story sad, but John Andrew says that he had thought so too until Ben explained that it’s actually hilarious.

At church, the Rev. Tendril, as always, delivers one of his sermons written decades ago for troops stationed in India, without changing a word. The villagers in the congregation are well accustomed to these bizarrely incongruous sermons and don’t find anything wrong with them, as they expect nothing of personal relevance from the pleasant ritual of churchgoing. Afterward, Tony feeds the villagers “the invariable formula” of mild sickness as an excuse for why Brenda couldn’t come. John Andrew continues telling the story of Peppermint to anyone who will listen, earning a further rebuke from his nanny. On the way home, Tony fulfils another custom by picking buttonhole flowers from the estate gardens.

While Tony is gone, John Beaver and Brenda continue to get along, and Brenda again laments her isolation at Hetton, where she and Tony “never make any new friends.” When Tony returns, Beaver is reading Brenda’s palm, seriously at first but soon revealing his reading as a farce. Alone with Tony, Brenda again denies that Beaver is all that bad and claims he even resembles her and Tony, which Tony flatly rejects.

Tony and Brenda give John Beaver a two-hour tour of Hetton, with Tony proudly pointing out every feature and ancestral knickknack in the estate. Beaver is a well-practiced house guest and politely shows interest throughout the tour. Once Tony departs again, Brenda reveals her real loathing for the unstylish estate, which she hides from Tony. She notes that if they sold it they could be quite rich, whereas now maintaining the house and staff eats up all their wealth. Yet she’s aware that Tony would never agree to part with the house—unlike her own family, whose ancestral estate her brother Reggie sold without objection.

Brenda convinces Beaver to stay another night, to Tony’s chagrin. She and Beaver play parlor games while Tony reads the papers. Tony is relieved when Beaver finally leaves, but Brenda doesn’t seem to share his contempt for their guest. When Beaver returns home, he tells Mrs. Beaver that Brenda mentioned interest in finding a London apartment, unbeknownst to Tony. Mrs. Beaver is excited about the potential business. 

Brenda goes to visit her sister Marjorie in London, as she does on occasion, always travelling by third class rail. Surprised to hear that John Beaver had been a guest at Hetton, Marjorie has nothing kind to say about him. Nevertheless, she presses Brenda until she admits her infatuation with Beaver, despite finding him “pathetic.” She reiterates that she rarely sees young men in her social life these days.

At lunch, they run into the socialite Polly Cockpurse, who again invites them to her upcoming party. Also present is Mrs. Beaver, who aggressively markets a London flat to Brenda, inviting her over for a cocktail that evening to further discuss the lease. Brenda wonders doubtfully whether John Beaver will be home when she visits, but indeed he is, despite two other dinner invitations. Mrs. Beaver delivers a sales pitch for her sleek, minimalist apartment offerings. Later, John Beaver walks Brenda to the train, but denies her request that he take her to Polly’s party—secretly because he doesn’t want to take on the likely expenses involved in dinner and cab fare.

Brenda returns to Hetton totally drained from travel and uninterested in conversation with Tony. The next day, she receives a telegram from John Beaver saying that he can take her to Polly Cockpurse’s party after all. Leaving Tony and John Andrew back at Hetton, Brenda meets Beaver in London for dinner before the party. After a drink at Marjorie’s, in the cab to the restaurant, Beaver tries to kiss Brenda. She resists, leaving Beaver confused. He makes an awkward apology over dinner, but Brenda implies that her issue was with Beaver’s clumsiness rather than the attempt itself. Brenda pays for the meal, and in the subsequent cab to the party she takes the lead and kisses Beaver.

The party is a predictable London soiree, successfully boosting Polly Cockpurse’s social clout as she had desired. Throughout the evening, Brenda misreads John Beaver’s social climbing priorities, and he has a frustrating evening of repeatedly ending up alone. Brenda frets over him not enjoying himself, but she still dances with Jock Grant-Menzies and other old friends—none of whom like Beaver, but with whom Beaver is eager to be seen. Beaver is cold to Brenda when they split for the night, and he remains so when she telephones him romantically once they’re home.

The next morning, Brenda is self-conscious about this apparent rejection and affirms to Marjorie her illogical attraction to the admittedly unlikable John Beaver. Polly calls up and reveals that Brenda’s dalliance with Beaver is already the talk of the town. At their home, Mrs. Beaver exhorts her son to pursue Brenda for the sake of his own social climbing and to secure her rental of one of Mrs. Beaver’s apartments. Beaver resists, again invoking the continual costs of entertaining a woman. Brenda has given up on Beaver calling her as he’d promised and heads to lunch with Marjorie. By coincidence, Beaver is there, and makes a lame excuse for not calling. Brenda lets it slide and invites him to a movie, before brusquely telegramming Tony that she’s staying in London a few more days.

Brenda returns to Hetton, an excited John Andrew, and a seemingly irked Tony. John Andrew gushes about all the goings-on she has missed, including his horse-jumping progress and a drawing he’s working on, but Tony’s report is that “[n]othing much has happened.” Brenda immediately mentions the desired London flat to Tony and begins wearing away at his predictable refusals, laying on the charm while conjuring all kinds of validations and flimsy arguments. Tony begins to cave in to her, but he mentions that the expense of the flat would mean having to delay overdue repairs at Hetton.

Brenda swiftly returns to London and views one of Mrs. Beaver’s flats with the confidence of a definite customer. In the meantime, however, Brenda continues to stay with Marjorie, who maintains her condemnation of Brenda’s affair, calling it “hard cheese on Tony.” The rest of the London gossips, however, seem enthralled with the development, eagerly reporting on sightings of Brenda and John Beaver together out on the town. Brenda had always captivated the minds of those who live off gossip and fantasizing about others’ lives: her beauty and elegance had once made her highly coveted around London, but then, like a fairytale princess, she became shut up in the remote environs of Hetton with her dull husband.

The sheer unlikelihood of the widely disliked John Beaver being the one to steal Brenda’s heart has made her story even more fantastical and poetic. Mrs. Beaver is as thrilled as everyone else, seeing the affair as a wonderful improvement for her rather directionless son. John Beaver, for his part, is suddenly a “person of interest” for the first time in his life, winning esteem from the crowd at Brat’s. One night at her new apartment, Brenda enthuses about the flat to Tony over the telephone while Beaver lies beside her in bed.

At Christmas, John Beaver and Mrs. Beaver go to Ireland, while Tony’s extended family comes to Hetton. Though comparatively poor, Tony’s relatives consider themselves at home in the family estate and make Brenda uncomfortable with their endless and un-classy parlor games in which she is forced to participate. Hetton winding up in Tony’s hands rather than these relatives’ was due only to the custom of inheritance by the firstborn son.

From Ireland, John Beaver sends Brenda a thoughtless, unfinished thank-you note for an expensive ring she gave him. Brenda interprets the inconsiderate note as a lack of interest from Beaver and resigns herself to the fact. Over New Years, Tony uncharacteristically insists on accompanying Brenda to a friend’s home, because he’s seen so little of her lately. Once there, he is surprised to find that Beaver is among the other guests. She and Beaver studiously avoid each other all weekend. The New Year begins with Brenda telling Tony she’s resolved to take up a course in economics in London, as Hetton and John Andrew get along fine without her.