![]() ![]() With this second chance, Larry has decided to search for the meaning of life. ![]() Larry explains that his outlook has been shaped by a profoundly moving wartime experience in which his close friend sacrificed his own life so that Larry might live. Larry arrives late, and when Isabel questions him about turning down a lucrative position with the Maturins, Larry responds that his goal in life is "to loaf." Isabel, who has been indoctrinated with the glories of American expansionism and the idea that self respect is derived through hard work, listens with incredulity as Larry states that there are more important goals in life than making money. At the party, Maugham also meets Sophie, Isabel's simple childhood friend who is wearing a borrowed gown. ![]() Louisa would much prefer that Isabel marry Gray Maturin, the son of a wealthy stockbroker. ![]() Somerset Maugham recalls the time in 1919 when he first he met Larry Darrell, "a remarkable creature," during a dinner party at a Chicago country club hosted by the snobbish Elliott Templeton and his supercilious sister, Louisa Bradley: Louisa is distraught because her elegant daughter Isabel is engaged to Larry, a man who lacks money, prospects and ambition. ![]()
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