The Story of Brideshead Revisited

IV

At the end of the summer term Charles returns home having spent all the money his father had allowed him - and much more. He lives in a quiet part of London with his father and two elderly servants, his mother having died as a nurse looking after Serb casualties in the First World War. He cannot do much in the vacation without more money, but his father feels he has given enough (as indeed he has) and refuses to understand his son’s plight. Instead he tries to drive his son away from the house in numerous little ways, for in his middle age he has grown odd and reclusive.

Finally Charles is rescued by a telegram from Sebastian, urgently summoning him to Brideshead after he has suffered what he calls a grave injury. Julia meets him at the railway station and tells him that the injury is simply the cracking of a small bone in his foot caused by a fit of temper on the croquet lawn. She is pleased to see Charles arrive because otherwise she would have had to stay to look after Sebastian herself, none of the rest of the family being at home.