The Painted Veil

Kitty and her lover, Charles Townsend, are in her bedroom when they sense the doorknob turning and a presence in the house. Kitty imagines that her husband, Walter, has discovered them and is terrified. Townsend attempts to dismiss her fears.

Kitty and Townsend speculate about what Walter would do if he found out about their affair. Townsend suspects that Walter might be too shy and reserved to do anything. He reinforces that they should not worry about their “mysterious visitor” (9). It was likely the amah (Kitty’s female servant), and Townsend can threaten her so that she will not give them away.

Townsend departs, leaving Kitty to her reflections. Although meeting at her marital home is risky, Kitty prefers it to the more sordid-seeming curio dealer’s and opium den where she and Townsend previously held their assignations (10).

Kitty compares herself to Dorothy, Townsend’s wife, and finds herself prettier, more interesting, and better connected. She judges Dorothy, a daughter of a former colonial governor and the devoted mother to three boys, cold and uninteresting.

Kitty, who came to Hong Kong on marrying Walter, found it difficult to accept that her husband’s job should determine her social position. As a government bacteriologist, Walter has low social status, and Kitty was horrified to find herself rejected by people whom she would have rejected back in England. She considers her own social standing good, as her family lives in Kensington (a posh part of London) and her father is a King’s Counsel judge.

Kitty learns from her servant boy that Walter was the one who came while she was locked in her room with Townsend. She calls Townsend for advice, but he is busy and suggests she “sit tight” (15). She wonders if Walter knows and if he will start an argument. She almost feels that she does not care if he finds out, as she loves Townsend and does not care for Walter. Moreover, since she started up with Townsend, she finds sexual relations with Walter annoying and undesirable.

Kitty knew her marriage was a mistake and considers it the fault of her mother, Mrs. Garstin.

Mrs. Garstin resented that her social standing depended on her husband’s position. As a result, she pushed the shy, retiring Bernard Garstin into positions that his natural temperament rendered him unsuitable for, such as being a member of Parliament. Kitty remembers her mother as a curious mix of ingratiating and frugal, hosting long but penny-pinching dinners with people who might help advance the family socially. While Mrs. Garstin nagged, Mr. Garstin became a “subdued little man” who provided for his wife and daughters even as he remained distant from them (19).

When Mrs. Garstin’s husband disappointed her hopes of rising socially, she turned to her daughters, who she hoped would make socially advantageous marriages. While she considered her younger daughter, Doris, too homely to attract a flashy suitor, she thought her oldest daughter, Kitty, “a beauty” (20). Kitty was a charming and popular debutante, but the years passed without a suitable proposal. While Mrs. Garstin warned that Kitty’s looks would fade rapidly, Kitty appeared to be enjoying the single life. However, when Doris became engaged to a rich, titled surgeon at the age of 18, Kitty married Walter Fane “in a panic” (22).

While Walter and Kitty met a few times at dances, she did not pay attention to him. He lived in “the East” and came to England on leave. His reserve and quietness made him unlike the other boys she had met. When Mrs. Garstin asked if Walter was in love with Kitty, Kitty replied that she didn’t know and would not marry him anyway. However, Kitty felt that “her mother did not care […] whom she married so long as somehow she got her off her hands” (24).

During the period of their acquaintance, Kitty learned that Walter was a bacteriologist in a Hong Kong laboratory. While she didn’t know how Walter felt about her, she knew that she was not attracted to him. Although his facial features were good, he lacked “gaiety” and she felt “not quite at ease with him” (27).

However, when Kitty’s sister Doris became engaged, Kitty felt that, at 25, she “had made a hash” of her own marital prospects (27). She felt humiliated because she had been the pretty one expected to make a better marriage.

When Kitty met Walter Fane by chance during an outing, he invited her to sit with him. To her astonishment, Walter proposed to her. He excused the awkward style of the proposal, saying, “I’m very awkward and clumsy. I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don’t” (29). While he had been in love with Kitty from his first sighting of her, she confessed, “I’ve never thought of you in that way” (30). Kitty initially asked for time to think, protesting that she did not know Walter at all. However, Walter’s unusual stillness and the thought that marrying him would enable her to escape the humiliation of being a bridesmaid at her younger sister’s wedding made her answer in the affirmative. Walter was eager to marry immediately, honeymoon in Italy over the summer, and go to Hong Kong in the autumn.

Throughout their marriage, Walter has been both attentive and respectful to Kitty, treating her “as though she were a fellow-guest in a country house” (33). However, his passion and emotion during their conjugal relations repels her, and she finds his silence and dislike of parties disconcerting.

Kitty found that Walter, though generally placid, would become annoyed by questions about himself and his past—not “because he had anything to hide from her, but merely from a natural secretiveness” (35). His lack of charm and vivacity did not so much bore her as leave her indifferent.

Kitty met Charles Townsend a few weeks into her Hong Kong stay while attending a dinner his wife hosted. Kitty and Townsend mutually admired each other, with Townsend calling Kitty “a raging beauty” (37). She discovered that he was “probably the most popular man in the colony” (39), and at the end of the dinner he expressed that he hoped to see Kitty again.

Within three months of meeting, Kitty and Townsend became lovers. She fell in love with him, and although her upbringing gave her some scruples about having sex with him, when she gave in, she was amazed to discover that she was still the same person: “[S]he felt in no way different from what she had before” (42).

Kitty’s relationship with Townsend has caused her to regain her youthful glow and vivacity. She wishes that she were Townsend’s wife instead of Walter’s.

On the evening of the day that Walter discovers Kitty and Townsend, she reiterates to herself that it would not be so bad if Walter found out the truth. She imagines that after their divorces, she and Townsend can marry each other; after some time has passed, she believes Walter will recover too. However, she cannot help feeling uneasy, and by the time Walter is home, she is agitated, full of anger at the thought that he stands between her and Townsend.

When Walter comes upstairs, Kitty is certain by his pallor and listlessness that he knows everything. However, they go through a charade of having dinner and saying goodnight as though nothing has happened.

Kitty calls Townsend at his office and asks for a rendezvous. Irritably, he consents to a brief meeting at the curio shop.

Kitty arrives first at the curio shop. She tells Townsend that she is certain Walter knows because he did not kiss her goodnight for the first time in their marriage. Townsend conjectures that Walter will remain silent to keep his wife, avoid scandal, and stay in Townsend’s good books in case Townsend is promoted to the office of colonial secretary. Townsend tries to reassure Kitty, embracing her as he closes the door.

On the evening following her rendezvous with Townsend, Kitty sees that Walter is sullen and despondent. He will neither properly communicate with her nor give himself over to the social events they attend.

The next day, Walter announces that he will be going to Meitan-fu to provide medical aid, as a deadly cholera epidemic has arisen there. Kitty initially thinks he means to go there alone and that this is a means of suicide. However, he reveals that he intends for Kitty to go with him. Kitty protests that she will go to Japan instead to escape the heat and that it is “monstrous” of Walter to ask that she go with him (70). Walter says that if she does not go, he will not go either.

Walter makes it clear that he knows about the affair. Kitty asks for a divorce, but Walter replies that Townsend will only marry her if the case is so scandalous that his wife offers to divorce him. Walter then reveals that he was never under any illusion that Kitty loved him and that he knows she married him merely to avoid the humiliation of being single. He also says that he found her “second-rate” in intelligence and values but could not help loving her, and he took pains at least to avoid annoying her. He then gives her an ultimatum: If she refuses to come to Meitan-fu, he will file a petition. However, he will only consent to divorce her if Mrs. Townsend divorces her husband and if Townsend promises to marry Kitty within a week of the divorce becoming finalized. Walter advises Kitty to go to Townsend immediately, as the alternative trip to Meitan-fu would begin the day after tomorrow.

Kitty goes to see Townsend in his office. To her dismay, he is businesslike and pragmatic when she divulges that Walter wants a divorce. He contests Walter’s proof of their adultery and says he can enlist the governor to put pressure on Walter and so avoid scandal. Kitty conjectures that this is not the first amorous scrape that Townsend has gotten out of. Kitty says that Walter will only consent to divorce if he gains assurance that Mrs. Townsend will divorce Townsend and that Townsend will marry Kitty.

Townsend affirms that he does not want to divorce his wife, Dorothy, whom he is very fond of; he also does not want such a scandal to destroy his career. He hopes to ascend to the position of colonial governor. Kitty accuses Townsend of insincerity in his professions of love and begins to feel bitter towards him. He suggests that Kitty throw herself upon her husband’s mercy.

Kitty tells Townsend that the alternative to their mutual divorce is her forced voyage to Meitan-fu. He initially acknowledges the danger but then describes her fear of dying in a cholera epidemic as “an exaggeration” (93); he also says that it is a great career opportunity for her husband. When Townsend will not acknowledge that Walter wants to bring Kitty to Meitan-fu because he thinks it will kill her, she realizes that Walter issued the ultimatum because he foresaw how Townsend would reject it, which would “cruel[ly] disillusion” Kitty about Townsend’s character (96). She now sees Townsend for the vain, cowardly person that he really is. She determines to go to Meitan-fu, regardless of what her fate there will be. She thinks that death might be a form of release. Townsend feels relieved when she leaves his office and seeks a brandy and soda.