Clear Horizon opens with another of Dorothy Richardson’s forty-some page chapters, in which external events vie for space with internal impressions (usually losing), then proceeds to race through ever-shorter chapters to end with a scant page and a half in Chapter 11.
Chapter 1
One of the longest chapters in Pilgrimage. At breakfast at Mrs. Bailey’s Miriam thinks about Lionel Chomley, a poet staying at the lodging house, then recalls writing to Hypo to tell him that she is pregnant. But she was more consumed about a visionary moment of “being up in the rejoicing sky,” an experience she later discussed with Amabel. She remembers receiving a telegram from Michael and her decision to introduce him to Amabel. Later, we return to the present and learn that Miriam is no longer pregnant (“her recently restored freedom”).
Chapter 2
Miriam and Amabel meet Hypo, who did not understand Miriam’s note and still thinks her pregnant. After Amabel leaves, they go to Donizetti’s where, after a long conversation, Miriam decides that her relationship with Hypo is “conclusively ended.”
Chapter 3
Miriam attends a Lycurgan meeting while Amabel takes part in a Suffragist march. Miriam recalls Amabel’s experiences with the Lycurgans and an Easter church service she attended as a teen. Miriam meets Amabel at Mrs. Bailey’s and learns that she was arrested at the march.
Chapter 4
Miriam reflects on her views on writing and finishes a review.
Chapter 5
Miriam visits Amabel in prison and hears of Amabel’s campaign against “the inhumanity of the wardress.”
Chapter 6
Miriam receives a note from Hypo that she sends back in irritation. She thinks of Amabel, now released from prison and recovering at her family’s home.
Chapter 7
Miriam meets with Dr Densley, who is going to perform an operation on her sister Sarah. Densley advises Miriam herself to take a long rest.
Chapter 8
Miriam stops at the dental practice on Wimpole Street and recalls some of the people she worked with there.
Chapter 9
Miriam visits Sarah, who is recuperating from her surgery. She meets Nan and Estelle Babington, two acquaintances from her youth.
Chapter 10
Visiting the Wilsons’, Miriam is advised by Hypo to write a “dental novel” while she is taking time off.
Chapter 11
After her stay with the Wilsons, Miriam goes to Wimpole Street for the last time, having been replaced by a new secretary, and says farewell to Mr Hancock.