For most of her life, Juliet had believed in the myth of her parents' perfect marriage. As bright and precocious as she was, there is little evidence that she ever saw beneath the prim and proper façade that her parents erected around their strained marriage. The truth was, the relationship was being buffeted from a variety of sources.
Dr. Hulme's tenure at Canterbury College had been marked by discord with the university's regents, and by the middle of 1954, the university had decided that the time had come to sever its relationship with the physicist.
Hilda Hulme was also considering a similar course of action.
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| Walter Perry |
She had, it would later be learned, developed a deep and abiding passion, for Walter "Bill" Perry, ironically for one of her clients at the Marriage Guidance Council whose own marriage had collapsed. Though there had apparently been rumors about the pair, they were generally discreet, and talk of their relationship was largely conducted in sneers and whispers, and always out of earshot of Juliet.
That all changed, however, on the night of April 23, 1954, when Juliet discovered her mother and her new suitor in bed together.
As Pauline would later describe it in her diary, "This afternoon I played Tosca and wrote before ringing Deborah. Then she told me the stupendous news. Last night she woke at 2 a.m. and for some reason went to her mother's room. It was empty, so she went downstairs to look for her. Deborah could not find her, so she crept as stealthily as she could into Mr. Perry's flat and stole upstairs. She heard voices from inside his bedroom, and she stayed outside for a little while, then she opened the door and switched the light on in one movement. Mr. Perry and Mrs. Hulme were in bed drinking tea. Deborah felt an hysterical tendency to giggle. She said, 'Hello' in a very [illegible] voice. She was shaking with emotion and shock, although she had known what she would find. They goggled at her for a minute and her Mother said, 'I suppose you want an explanation?' Yes, Deborah replied, I do. Well, you see we are in love, Mother explained. Deborah was wonderful. But I know THAT she exclaimed, her voice seemed to belong to someone else. Her Mother explained that Dr Hulme knew all about it, and that they intended to live as a threesome. Anyway, Deborah went as far as telling about our desire to go to America in [illegible], six months, though she could not explain the reason of course. Mr. Perry gave her 100 [pounds] to get permits. Everyone is being frightfully decent about everything and I feel wildly happy and rather queer... I am going out to Ilam tomorrow as we have so much to talk over."
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