Lancaster Gate Summary

Lisa, aged thirty-five, has for seventeen months been the mistress of a wealthy forty-five-year-old married man whose name is never named in the story. Clearly, he has no intention of leaving his family as a third child is about to be born. Lisa regrets the huge scene that she has made when he announces a week-long business trip to London and neglects to invite her. Her hysteria shakes him and earns the invitation. She meets him at a service station on the London Road, fearing while she waits that he will stand her up. He is uncharacteristically confused while driving in the city.

They stay in a posh hotel as man and wife, but Lisa realizes that he is starting to lose interest because of her anxiety—which serves only to increase the anxiety. Lisa wonders how movie characters can...