The Go-Between: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

Later at lunch, Leo keeps thinking about two fragments of his conversation with Trimingham: that nothing is a lady’s fault and that it might be necessary to kill someone even if “you didn’t really dislike them.”

Marcus tells Leo that he can’t hang around with him that afternoon as he has to visit his grandmother with Marian. He reminds Leo that Marian and Trimingham’s engagement is a secret. Marcus asks if Leo will spend his afternoon sliding down the straw-stack. Leo says he’s done with all that and might visit the rubbish heap instead.

Leo visits the thermometer in the game-larder. The temperature is hotter than yesterday, but he thinks it can still do better. Marian suddenly appears, and to Leo’s surprise asks him to take a letter to the farm.

Leo is “dumbfounded,” as “the scaffolding of [his] life seemed to collapse.” Leo thinks it’s wrong that if she is engaged to Trimingham she should be “friendly” with another man, and that it might lead to murder.

Leo tells Marian he can’t take her letter because Trimingham might be upset. She reacts angrily, insisting that the letters are only “a business matter.” She lambasts Leo for being ungrateful and uncooperative, and assumes that Leo wants money. Leo, distraught at Marian’s anger, snatches the letter from her and runs as fast he can.

Leo is gravely hurt by Marian’s outburst. He credits her as being the “fairy princess” who has turned him from “an ugly duckling into a swan.” He feels that his successes of the recent days are due to her “spell,” but that now she has taken it all away. He now suspects that everything that she has done for him was with an “ulterior motive.” At this realization he begins to cry, but holds onto Trimingham’s advice that “nothing is ever a lady’s fault.”

After some debate with himself as to whether he should deliver the letter, Leo heads to the farm and finds Ted inside the kitchen. Ted is bare-chested, peering into the muzzle of his gun.

Ted notices that Leo has been crying and asks him why. He puts forward ways to cheer Leo up, suggesting that they take the gun outside and let it off.

In the stackyard, Ted fires the gun at a rook, frightening Leo. Leo asks Ted if he ever misses, to which Ted replies that he’s a “pretty good shot.” They take the gun back inside so that Ted can show Leo how to clean it. Leo admires the muscles in Ted’s arms as he cleans the gun.

With the gun now clean, Ted gets Leo to hold it, which Leo finds to be a “strange thrill.” Leo points it at things in the room, and then at Ted. Ted tells him that he should never do that, even if it isn’t loaded.

Leo’s mood improves, and he offers to oil Ted’s cricket bat. As he does so, Ted asks if Leo has a letter for him. Leo suddenly feels that it is time for him to leave, and asks if Ted has a message for Marian.

Ted asks whether Leo actually wants to take a message, and Leo says that if he doesn’t then Marian will be angry. Ted realizes that Marian is the cause of Leo’s upset. Ted asks if there’s a favor he can do for Leo in exchange for the delivery of his message.

Leo reminds Ted that he had promised to tell him about “spooning.” Ted’s not sure if he should, saying that it’s a job for Leo’s dad (not realizing he is dead). Ted tells Leo that it means “putting your arm around a girl and kissing her.” Leo thinks it’s something more—that it makes you “feel.”

Ted asks Leo what he likes doing best. Leo can’t think of much, but suggests dreams about flying, or “waking up and knowing that somebody you dreamed had died was really alive.” Ted says to think of that, and then “add some,” and that is what “spooning” is like. Leo implores Ted to tell him more, and says he won’t take any messages for Ted if not. Ted stands up, “armoured by his nakedness,” and tells Leo to get out of there quick—“or you’ll be sorry.”