Circle of Friends II

Benny meets Eve in Dublin on the first day of college, and Eve tells her she is going to find some way of getting to University. Then, both of them are involved in a traffic accident. Benny is not hurt but Eve is. When waiting in hospital for treatment they meet some of their fellow students who were also there when the car crashed. One is a very beautiful girl of 18 called Nan Mahon; she is a Dubliner, and her father is a small builder. However he is also given to drinking and hits her downtrodden mother Emily quite often. They also meet Jack and Aidan. Jack is the son of a well to do doctor and is studying law. He is very handsome and charming and Benny is attracted to him. Aidan fancies himself as a bit of a wit, and he takes a liking to Eve who laughs at him. Eve goes back home to the convent where the nuns make a fuss of her and she tells Mother Francis who has looked after her, that she could not stand the convent in Dublin. She decides to approach the Westward family to ask if they would pay for her to go to college. She approaches her cousin, Simon, who is managing the estate, his father is now an elderly invalid... and he feels a bit guilty that the family has neglected her and he agrees to pay for her university fees. She gets a job in Dublin helping out a lady who rents rooms to students...and prepares to start her new life. The 2 girls like Nan, but dont realise that she is very ambitious. She is not academic and is mainly going to college in hopes that she will meet someone well to do and marry him.