Alison returns to the apartment she once shared with Jimmy and Cliff after leaving for her parents’ home for several months at Helena’s urging. In the meantime, however, Helena has moved into the apartment and entered into a romantic relationship with Jimmy. Alison and Helena have a frank conversation in which Alison describes her return to the apartment with two similes: 

So many times, I’ve just managed to stop myself coming here – right at the last moment. Even today, when I went to the booking office at St Pancras, it was like a charade, and I never believed that I’d let myself walk on to that train. And when I was on it, I got into a panic. I felt like a criminal. I told myself I’d turn round at the other end, and come straight back. I couldn’t even believe that this place existed any more. But once I got here, there was nothing I could do.

Both women deal with personal shame in this scene. Helena, whose values are somewhat traditional, perceives her relationship with Jimmy as an affair, as Jimmy is still married to Alison despite their estrangement. Alison, in turn, apologizes for her presence in the apartment, as she regards Helena’s relationship to Jimmy as legitimate and does not mean to disturb their peace. Explaining her own actions, Alison notes that “it felt like a charade” when she got a ticket from St. Pancras station in London to the Midlands. She compares, in this simile, herself to a person who is merely miming an action in a game of charades. Though she claims that she had no conscious plan to return to the apartment, and has “managed to stop” herself from doing so in the past, she nevertheless moves almost automatically, in a state of panic.

In another simile, she says just that she “felt like a criminal” while riding the train. Though she has broken no laws, she feels that it is unfair to her to return to the apartment when she knows that Jimmy and Helena are now dating. Though Alison insists that she is not there to disturb Jimmy and Helena’s peace, Helena feels that she has wronged her friend and, in the final scene of the play, breaks off her relationship with Jimmy, who then returns to Alison.