Reality vs Appearance in the story Luncheon by William Somerset Maugham

"THE LUNCHEON" is a short story written by a prominent, English novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and essayist  William Somerset Maugham. The primary theme of the story ‘Luncheon’ is appearance vs reality. The contrast between appearance and reality is mentioned below-

In the story "Luncheon" the narrator is a young writer. He relates about a lady who is an admirer of his stories. She wins the author's favor and expresses her wish to meet him at Foyot's restaurant which is a high-class restaurant. Though the young writer knows that the restaurant is far beyond his means he never even thought of going there. But he somehow falls into the false motivations of the lady and meets her at the restaurant. Here we start to realize the difference between her appearance and reality. She seems very polite and a good manned woman as she behaves with the writer at the beginning. As the story moves she reveals her greed over food, extravagance, and selfishness. 

She repeats multiple times that she doesn’t take anything for luncheon. But we see she orders more and more food items consecutively. She has no awareness that she was a guest of the writer and he will pay the bills so she should eat within a limit as they are meeting for the first time. The writer becomes appeal of thinking the costs and also very anxious about the lady's attitude. In the beginning, the lady behaves in a very moderate nature but she gradually reveals her real qualities which were completely different from her first appearance. Though The title "Luncheon" means lite snacks, it turns into a heavy meal as we can see in this short story. The lady has proved that the first impression isn’t the last. 

This is how  William Somerset Maugham portrays the reality vs appearance of the lady through this story.