The Story of Brideshead Revisited

VI

Charles and Sebastian return to Oxford for the autumn term in a subdued mood. Partly, the mood is because a number of acquaintances have left : Jasper has got his degree and Blanche has left early to live with a lover in Munich. There is also the inconvenience that, because of her son’s uncertain start, Lady Marchmain has asked a don, Mr Samgrass, to keep an eye on him. Charles decides to pursue art seriously and enrols in an art school, but Sebastian becomes more and more morose as he begins to feel trapped.

Lady Marchmain visits Oxford and makes a point of getting to know Charles, to Sebastian’s sour disgruntlement. Then Julia comes, bringing with her a Canadian, a mature man who is already a Member of Parliament but who seems to be obsessed with her. This man, Rex Mottram, invites the boys and Boy Mulcaster to a charity ball that Julia is giving in London.

In London Mulcaster finds the dance boring and suggests that they go to the Old Hundredth, a night-club where he knows a girl called Effie. Instead of calling a taxi Sebastian drives them there in a car borrowed at Oxford. Once inside Mulcaster finds Effie, who does not remember him, and Charles and Sebastian pick up two tarts, one of whom suggests they all go to her place for a private party. Sebastian, thoroughly drunk, drives so badly that two policemen stop them. Any chance of smoothing the situation over disappears when Mulcaster suggests that the policemen are corrupt enough to let them go. In the cells they send for Rex Mottram who quickly gets them out, but not before they are charged.

Mulcaster and Charles are instructed to plead guilty and pay the small fine; but Sebastian, as the driver, has to come to trial. The magistrate takes a severe view and fines him ten pounds, stating that he had reluctantly been persuaded not to send him to prison. The result is that at Oxford the boys are gated for the rest of the term and placed under Mr Samgrass’s supervision. Though they are supposed to stay in their rooms at night, they do manage occasionally to get out and meet, but Mr Samgrass is always around to spoil their fun.

Charles is invited to Brideshead for the New Year, and when he arrives he is not delighted to find Mr Samgrass already there. The don is editing a memorial book for Lady Marchmain which will immortalise her three soldier brothers. Lady Marchmain gradually draws Charles into friendship and confidence, an act which Charles accepts gratefully but which drives Sebastian further into drink and depression.

Back at Oxford Sebastian’s drunkenness develops a sullen quality. He drinks more as Charles drinks less. At Brideshead in the Easter vacation Charles notices that Sebastian spends much of the time secretly drinking. One evening he is so drunk that Charles advises him to stay in his room and he will say that he has a cold. Unfortunately Cordelia goes to see Sebastian and blurts out to the whole company that her brother is drunk. Lady Marchmain tries to calm the atmosphere by reading one of the Father Brown stories of G.K.Chesterton.

The following day Sebastian escapes from Brideshead and goes to stay at Charles’s house. Charles sees Lady Marchmain before he departs too, and finds her resolutely uncomprehending in her analysis of Sebastian’s condition. She gives Charles a copy of the book about her dead brothers. When he reads it in the train home, he realises that Sebastian is an entirely different kind of man from his uncles. On arrival home he swears loyalty to Sebastian.

Back at Oxford Sebastian informs Charles that his mother wants him in the next academic year to lodge in the house of the Catholic chaplain, instead of in digs with Charles as the two of them had intended. After she visits him he twice gets disastrously drunk. Charles, who sees that the end is nigh and the situation could not possibly be made worse, joins him in the second binge. Lady Marchmain then takes Sebastian away from Oxford.

Charles feels that his own life has reached a turning-point, and he asks his father for permission not to take a degree but instead to study art. His father raises no objections. Charles hears from Lady Marchmain that Sebastian and Mr Samgrass will be going on a tour of the Middle East, but she knows that Sebastian will want to welcome Charles to Brideshead at Christmas.