The End of the Affair It is hard for Richard to believe Nancy could have been so fickle when he thought she was "as genuine as rain."
It is during one of their afternoon trysts at her flat that Beamish bursts in accompanied by a boxer friend. Richard and Julie are beaten brutally by Beamish and the ex-heavyweight. Upon hearing of the attack by a "heavyweight bruiser," Uncle Nick assures Richard: " If he thinks he can have a nephew of mine knocked about like that, he's wrong." Next scene is of Tommy Beamish being pelted with vegetables on stage. Richard tries repeatedly to reach Julie, but she leaves for South Africa without ever seeing him again. Overcome by a "rush of moral rectitude," he decides to go and find his true love, Nancy, but his search is fruitless. Cissie Mapes, Nick's assistant and companion,
comes to visit Richard in his The last scene in the episode is a visit to a
dwarves' theatrical agent. Nick has been planning a two-dwarves act for
a long time and he has come to pick a new dwarf. As Richard exits the room,
suspense builds in the
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In
London (their next stop), Richard cannot stop thinking about Nancy. He
finally decides to stop feeling sorry for himself: "Here I was . . . a
healthy young man in London for the first time and with a bob or two in
my pocket . . . There was somebody here who wasn't just a figment of my
imagination: Julie Blane." Richard visits her London flat frequently in
spite of Ricarlo's warnings about Tommy Beamish’s craziness and his rough
fighter friends. Herncastle has no illusion about the affair: "I knew I
wasn't really the man for Julie. Just a young substitute for the lover
who deserted her. We weren't ‘in love,’ but we were friends within our
mutual sexual obsession."
flat. She first scolds Richard for his affair with Julie, and in a scene,
full of tears and gin, she reveals her doubts about Nick's love, her lack
of self-confidence, and her strong affection for Richard. She throws herself
at Richard but, sober and sensible, he takes her home.
