Summary

Chapter 5

In Chapter 5, the narrator comes to know Charles a bit better when he is invited to attend the bachelor party thrown by several of his friends. To the dismay of David, the narrator is also invited to be an usher at the wedding. The narrator downplays the invitations to Isabel, suggesting he was only invited to be an usher as a formality for having introduced the couple.

For the bachelor party, Charles and twelve of his friends fly to Paris for an evening on the town. In Charles' friends, the narrator recognizes some regular upper-class types, including the somewhat dense Henry Cumnor and the amiable Tommy Wainwright,. Wainwright sometimes flies in the face of upper-class tradition. Eric, Caroline's husband, also attends, and the narrator discovers what a disagreeable person he is. He is rude to wait staff and makes several disparaging remarks about...