Chapter 23 Summary, Analysis, and Key Themes

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens in summer 1917 with Dora back home in Berkhamsted, which has been transformed into a garrison town. Three hundred white tents occupy Kitchener's Field, and cadets in training march through the countryside digging trenches and mock-raiding villages. The town buzzes with khaki, and Dora notes the local economy has shifted to serve the military presence—her favorite draper has become a gentlemen's outfitters.

Dora feels a shift in herself this summer, as if she is about to step through a doorway into a world previously inaccessible. At seventeen, she is to be head girl next year, and her parents have agreed to let her take a volunteer job at the cadet library in the town hall, run by Miss Pinkney. Dora enjoys the order of labeling, stamping, filing, and typing. Miss Pinkney, who lost a nephew at the Somme, devotes herself to sourcing requested books and writing letters to the YMCA and the Times for donations.

On Midsummer Day, Dora's twin brothers are playing with Gilbert, the elderly family rabbit, when a cadet's dog bursts from the bracken and kills it. The apologetic cadet, who introduces himself as Charles Baker, promises to replace the rabbit and offers to call on the family. The next day, Dora's school friend Hilda Dodd arrives to stay, sent from London to escape the Zeppelins. Hilda is bright, confident, and intends to apply to Girton.

When Charles calls at Fairview a few days later, Dora is at the library, but he brings two baby rabbits for the boys and roses for her mother. Over the following weeks, Dora spots him around town and attends the theater opening where he sings a wartime ballad that reduces the audience to tears. Hilda discovers Charles is known as Buns to his fellow trainees and that his father was recently knighted.

Charles visits the library, and their fingertips touch under a copy of Kidnapped. He walks Dora and Hilda home, charming them with stories. The remainder of July passes in a haze of outings—sports days, cycling, picnics, and the pictures. In early August, Hilda asks Charles to show them the training trenches on Berkhamsted Common. He leads them there, and in the trench, he kisses Dora for the first time.

Their courtship deepens through August. Charles takes evening walks in the forest near Fairview, and they develop a game of retrieving tennis balls. He visits most days, teaches the twins to march and sing, and plays cards on the terrace. Mrs. Greenwood is charmed and issues an open invitation to use the tennis court. By mid-August, they are officially walking out.

The night before Charles leaves to take up his commission with the Fifth Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, he proposes marriage in the hallway, giving her a battered Three Nuns cigarette tin as a token in lieu of a ring. He plans to tell his parents on his first leave. Dora kisses away his tears and promises to wait.

Three months later, Dora falls to her knees in the hallway. Her parents assume the news concerns George, and her mother faints. But George, advancing on Cambrai from the south, is safe for two weeks yet.

Key Events

Dora returns to a transformed Berkhamsted and takes a volunteer job at the cadet library
Charles Baker's dog kills the family rabbit Gilbert on Midsummer Day
Charles visits Fairview with replacement rabbits and roses
Dora and Charles meet again at the library and begin walking out
Charles shows Dora and Hilda the training trenches on Berkhamsted Common
They share their first kiss in the trench
Charles proposes marriage the night before leaving for his commission
Three months later, Dora collapses in the hallway—the news is not about George

Character Development

Dora: Moves from nervousness around young men to confident courtship. She remolds herself around Charles, and her previously blurry future comes into sharp relief. The chapter shows her coming of age—adults treat her differently, and she steps into romance and an engagement.
Charles Baker: Introduced as charming and spontaneous, an absolute rogue to Mr. Greenwood. He is easygoing, brushes off failure, and is both earnest (proposing, tearful) and playful. His hints about his mother's potential difficulty suggest class tensions.
Hilda Dodd: Serves as a catalyst and confidante, pushing Dora toward Charles and providing social confidence.
Miss Pinkney: Represents the home front's quiet dedication, channeling grief (her nephew at the Somme) into service.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

War's transformation of civilian life: Berkhamsted is remade by the military presence—tents, trenches, cadets, and a changed economy.
Death as catalyst for romance: Gilbert's death leads directly to Dora meeting Charles, and Dora even sends up a grateful prayer to Gilbert for his sacrifice.
Trenches as symbol: The training trenches are a rehearsal for the real thing. Dora finds them less terrible than she imagined, but the chapter's ending reminds us that the real trenches will claim lives.
Keepsakes and promises: The cigarette tin stands in for a ring, a promise of a future that may not come.
Class and social mobility: Charles's father is recently knighted; Dora's father is self-made. Charles's hints about his mother suggest class barriers.
Foreshadowing of loss: The chapter's final lines—Dora on her knees, her mother fainting, George safe for two weeks yet—imply that the news is about Charles.
Training vs. reality of war: The trenches on the common are orderly, with cuckoos calling; the reality George describes—rats, freezing mud—is far worse.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is pivotal for Dora's arc. It establishes her first serious romance and engagement, and it sets up the emotional stakes for what follows. The idyllic summer courtship—picnics, tennis, kisses in the trenches—contrasts sharply with the chapter's final image of Dora collapsing in the hallway. The cigarette tin, the promise to wait, and the prayer for an end to the war all gain tragic weight when we realize the news is likely about Charles. The chapter also deepens the novel's exploration of how the war reshapes ordinary life, from the converted draper's shop to the trenches dug on the common.

Study Questions and Answers

How does the chapter use the training trenches to comment on the gap between home-front perception and the reality of war?

The trenches on Berkhamsted Common are presented as orderly and almost pastoral—cuckoos call, the layout is neat, and Dora thinks it does not seem so bad. But George's earlier descriptions of rats and freezing mud, and the chapter's ending, remind the reader that these are rehearsals for something far worse. The training ground is a simulation; the real thing will be deadly.

What role does the cigarette tin play in the chapter, and what does it foreshadow?

The tin is given in lieu of a ring, a keepsake meant to hold hairpins and memories. It represents a promise of a future engagement and marriage that may never happen. The chapter's final lines—Dora on her knees, her mother fainting—strongly suggest that Charles will not return, making the tin a memento of a future cut short.

How does Dora change over the course of this chapter?

At the start, Dora is nervous around young men, worried about being seen as too sensible, and unsure of her future. By the end, she has remolded herself around Charles, her future no longer blurry but in sharp relief. The chapter traces her coming of age from uncertain girl to engaged woman, even as the war threatens to take that future away.