Quote 7
There was Regent's Park. Yes. As a child he had walked in Regent's Park – odd, he thought, how the thought of childhood keeps coming back to me – the result of seeing Clarissa, perhaps; for women live much more in the past than we do, he thought. (3.18)
Clarissa represents Peter’s past. He can’t stop dwelling on memories of her – and yet he believes that women are way more sentimental than men! Try again, Pete.
Quote 8
It was at Bourton that summer, early in the 'nineties, when he was so passionately in love with Clarissa. (4.12)
The summer at Bourton was a formative experience for Peter. He has never felt passion as great as the love he felt for Clarissa that summer. Do you think he's idealizing things in his memories, or was this actually the case?
Quote 9
She and Peter had settled down together. […] They would discuss the past. With the two of them (more even than with Richard) she shared her past; the garden; the trees; old Joseph Breitkopf singing Brahms without any voice; the drawing-room wallpaper; the smell of the mats. (6.76)
Peter and Sally haven’t seen each other since the days of Bourton. To Peter, Sally is one of the only people who understands the depth of his love for Clarissa.