The unnamed narrator's husband/lover, Clive likes everyone except Frankie, whom he finds brainless, prone to getting into trouble, and vain. Clive is silly once he "gets a bee in his bonnet" (p. 148) and foresees disaster when Frankie gets a job with the BBC. Clive teaches economics to "selfish self-advancing housewives" (p. 152) most evenings while the narrator, a teacher, takes classes, working towards a degree in Italian. When Frankie drops by to borrow a fitting wardrobe for her first day at work, she destroys a happy time of sorting through old photographs. Clive destroys a childhood picture that he detests but his wife loves and she retreats into ironing to hold in her temper.