The Razor’s Edge: Part 4, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Somerset has not seen Isabel for 10 years when she moves to Paris with her family to live in Elliott’s apartment. At the apartment, Isabel tells Somerset that it amuses her that they live like quite rich people when they’re absolutely broke. She says she has about the same income as Larry did when they broke off their engagement, and Gray doesn’t have a penny to his name. Somerset asks if she wishes she had married Larry, and Isabel says that she’s been very happy with Gray. Somerset wonders if that actually answers the question.

Somerset remarks to Isabel that she’s had a difficult past couple of years, and Isabel says that at first, after the crash, she didn’t see how she would go on. She had to give up everything she owned and part with everything she enjoyed. But, Isabel says, after a couple of weeks, she told herself she wouldn’t think about it anymore. It was “fun while it lasted,” she says, “and now it’s gone, it’s gone.” Gray then comes home after playing golf. In Gray’s eyes, where Somerset had once seen innocence and credulousness, he now sees confused disappointment.