Voyage in the Dark: Part One: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Anna now lives in a much nicer boarding house, spending her time waiting for letters. She thinks often about having sex with Walter, which she now does quite often. On Sundays, however, Walter always leaves the city, so Anna hates Sundays—which is unfortunate, since her 19th birthday happens to fall on a Sunday in January. She doesn’t spend it completely alone, though, since Maudie comes to visit. She compliments Anna’s appearance, since Anna recently changed her hair style. Maudie is also impressed by her “swanky” new apartment and happily accepts the nice vermouth Anna serves her. But she also teasingly says that all the chorus girls always knew Anna would end up with a rich man. When Anna takes offense, though, Maudie says there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

The best advice Maudie can give Anna is that she shouldn’t get too attached to Walter. Doing so would be a deadly mistake, she says. She should simply try to get as much out of Walter as she can without developing real feelings for him. Of course, Maudie knows she’s hardly in a position to dispense such advice, since she herself went crazy for Viv. She even thought he would marry her. When Anna catches her friend eyeing her narrow bed, she explains that Walter never comes to her apartment—they always go to his place. From this detail, Maudie notes that Walter is “the cautious sort.” Viv was like that, too, she says, adding that it doesn’t bode well when a man acts like that. 

Maudie urges Anna to demand more from Walter. If he’s rich, he should be paying for her to live somewhere even nicer. But at least he has already bought her some nice clothes, like the coat Anna has been wearing around—having such things will at least give her something in the long run. A man recently made a cruel joke to Maudie about how women’s clothing is often more expensive than the women who wear them. Although this was a rude thing to say, Maudie sees what he meant: a man can sleep with a woman for as little as five pounds, and many men don’t even need to pay for sex. But nice clothing costs a lot more than five pounds. Feeling uncomfortable, Anna tells her friend to shut up.

Anna might not come back as a chorus girl when the new season starts. Maudie wants to know what she’ll tell her stepmother, Hester, if she decides to quit the troupe, but Anna doesn’t know. Hester will be visiting London in February, so she’ll have to think of something good to say by then—but the entire thought of seeing Hester only depresses her. When she and Maudie part ways, Maudie says that Anna should at least be “careful” if she chooses not to behave herself.