Characterization of the two young ladies on the Utopia

Amongst the passengers on the “Utopia” are two young women from New York. They

travel from Europe back home to New York, where they apparently belong to the high

society and wear the latest fashion from Paris. In “Autres Temps” they represent the

“new” New York, in which divorce and remarriage is no longer an inexcusable social

aberration. Mrs. Lidcote even has the impression that it is fashionable among their

friends to get divorced. The two talk about a friend of them named Leila, who is

probably Leila Barkley, and so it can be assumed that they also represent Leila´s

ideas and attitudes.