The Bell

Driving fast in a Land Rover, the group arrives at the estate of Imber Court. Glimpsing the house through the alley, Dora feels overwhelmed at the grandeur of it, with its four pillars, a green copper dome, and two stone staircases. An “immense” lake hugs the building in the shape of an inverted letter L. The house lies next to the convent, separated by a tall stone wall.

Mrs. Mark, “a middle-aged broad-set person” (31), greets Dora and Toby, and they all head for a “lofty and elaborately paneled” room (32), which now serves as a chapel. Dora notices a young, beautiful girl and feels a pang of displeasure at not being the only pretty woman present.

The atmosphere is pious and silent, and Dora feels oppressed as she kneels alongside Paul. A nun, Sister Ursula, gazes at her and warns her to put a scarf over her head. Dora starts to obey but then decides to leave the chapel. She leaves the house, takes her shoes off, throws them in the grass, and runs toward the lake. Suddenly a hand bell rings, breaking her momentary peace, and she heads back for the house without finding her shoes, which sends Paul, Toby, and James in search of them. Mrs. Mark introduces her to the company: their leader (Michael Meade), Mark Strafford (Mrs. Mark’s husband), Peter Topglass, Patchway (the gardener), Father Bob Joyce, Sister Ursula, and the young woman (Catherine Fawley). Toby appears with Dora’s shoes, followed by an irritated Paul.

Alone in Paul’s room, Dora and Paul face each other, and he reprimands her for forgetting the suitcase that contained his work notebook, adding that Dora’s “escapades have diminished [her] permanently in [his] eyes” (41). Dora feels “deeply wounded” by his words.

Paul demands that she show respect for the community and tells her a legend of the Abbey bell: in the Middle Ages, a nun had a lover who would climb over the great wall to visit her and one day fell to his death. The guilty nun would not reveal herself, and the Bishop cursed the Abbey, causing its bell to fly out of the building and fall into the lake. Dora feels bad for the nun, prompting Paul to comment, “You, of course, identify yourself with the faithless one” (42).

Dora stares out of the window and sees a lone figure circling the lake. She soon recognizes young Toby, looking like the “very image of freedom” (44). She realizes Paul now wants her, but before going to him, she looks at herself in the mirror and sees a steady and bold figure, which astonishes her.

Toby stands near the water, pondering the fact that he will not be sleeping in the big house but at the porter’s lodge, alongside another person. He feels adolescent shyness amidst all the new encounters. He recently discovered his religious belief when James Tayper Pace gave a lecture at his school, and he immediately applied to visit the newly established religious commune; he was happy to learn he would spend a month there. He looks upon the convent’s wall and thinks of the “strictly enclosed Benedictine order” of nuns behind it (48). He feels a mixture of excitement and dread; the people he has met are not quite what he imagined they would be, and he was disappointed to find women present.

Walking to the house, Toby notices the servants’ quarters and the open kitchen window. Surprised, he sees Michael washing up and then listens in on his conversation with James. They discuss Nick, the other occupant of the Lodge, and their hope that Toby will keep an eye on the young man, who is prone to melancholy. Excited and scared, Toby rushes back to the balcony, where Michael meets him to ferry him across the lake to the Lodge (the road on foot is over a mile long).

Nick Fawley (Catherine’s twin brother) resembles his sister but appears dissolute to Toby. He has a dog, Murphy, with “an intelligent monkey-like face” (54). Relations between Michael and Nick seem strained, and as the leader leaves, Nick shows Toby his room, joking in an ironic manner and leaving the dog to keep Toby company.

The next morning, Mrs. Mark shows Dora around the grounds. She admonishes her for bringing flowers into the house: “We believe it’s a sound discipline to give up that particular sort of self-expression” (61). When Dora asks her about her past, Mrs. Mark replies that they never discuss their “past lives.” They circle the monastery, and Dora is disappointed that they cannot enter it and shocked that the nuns never come out. Mrs. Mark shows her a door that is usually opened only when a new postulant enters the convent, but which will be opened to admit the new bell.

They visit a building with “visiting parlors” in which one half of the room is screened to allow the nuns privacy when they communicate with people outside the convent. At Mrs. Mark’s suggestion that Dora might benefit from conversing with the nuns, Dora becomes “rigid with hostility, shuddering at these phrases” (66).

They visit Paul in the room where he is studying the manuscript, and he is delighted to see his wife. Mrs. Mark and Dora then enter the visitors’ chapel, where laypeople can participate in the Mass without seeing the nuns; it exudes “an annihilating silence” (68). Next, Mrs. Mark shows Dora the market garden, commenting: “We believe that women should stick to their traditional tasks” (71). In the orchard, they meet Catherine, and to her surprise, Dora learns Catherine is entering the convent in October.

Later, Dora walks to the village to retrieve Paul’s suitcase, which she then again forgets at the White Lion inn. On her way back, she roams the fields and gets lost before running into Michael Meade, who now seems more genial and decisive than earlier. As he leads the way home, they come to the lake and across it see Toby, fully naked, entering the waters. The scene thrills both of them strangely.