Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Gordon is happy to be going to a literary tea party hosted by a friend, Doring. However, he notes the parties are usually a disappointment: “Those wonderful, witty, erudite conversations that he imagined beforehand—they never happened or began to happen” (63-64). Also, the guests never know about his poems. While walking to the party, he thinks up new lines for London Pleasures.

When Gordon arrives at the Dorings’s house, he finds it empty. Gordon assumes they changed the date of the party without telling him and is upset. The experience is enough to destroy Gordon’s hopes of ever finishing London Pleasures.

Gordon wanders the streets of London looking for something to do. He nearly goes inside a bar but thinks about how he is too poor to get a drink unless someone buys one for him. When Gordon does get home, Mrs. Wisbeach hands him a letter; it is a rejection from a publisher. Angry and disappointed, Gordon blames the rejection, the Dorings “snubbing” him, and Rosemary ignoring him on his poverty. He then writes a letter to Rosemary, whom he has not heard from in five days. The letter simply reads, “You have broken my heart” (78).