Carnival

Jenny is born into the Raeburn family while her father is away at the theatre. The clown who is also his lodger features in the household, adding a peculiar backdrop to the moment. Three elderly women stand by the bed and lecture Mrs. Raeburn about the folly of her daughter joining the stage.

Jenny performs on stage as a ballerina, and her father loudly points her out from the balcony. His pride is a spectacle that the audience largely ignores, preferring to watch the performance.

She takes the stage name Pearl, signaling a shift in her public persona. She becomes strikingly attractive and begins to draw the attention of men.

At an art gallery, she attempts to demonstrate how a dancer's sculpture cannot be physically possible and ends up falling. The artist Maurice Avery catches her, and their love affair begins.

Maurice asks Jenny to live with him, but he makes clear he does not want them to marry. She is drawn to the possibility of a future with him, even as the question of marriage remains open.

A new lodger, Mr Trewhella, moves into the house and is told of Jenny's ballet career. He goes to see Jenny on stage, initiating a watchful dynamic over her life and career.

Trewhella spies on Jenny and Maurice as they chat after the show, heightening the sense of surveillance in the house. He learns that Maurice plans to take Jenny to Europe on an artistic tour, though he has not told Jenny yet.

On her birthday Maurice takes Jenny dancing to the Covent Garden Ball and gives her a bracelet. He tells her he is going to Spain and asks her to join him.

She stays out all night and, in the morning, tells her parents she is leaving. Maurice has already gone to Spain, and their mutual friend Fuzz explains the situation and suggests she marry him instead. Jenny runs off with Fuzz.

Her colleagues show little sympathy for her loss when her mother dies unexpectedly. Trewhella asks to marry Jenny and to look after both Jenny and Maisie in Cornwall. She reluctantly accepts and becomes Mistress Trewhella.

Maurice reappears and the two resume their affair with a late-night tryst. Jenny asks him to take her to Spain; she faints, and Maurice carries her off to an uncertain future.