{"id":181,"date":"2019-05-10T12:25:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T12:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/chapter\/the-awakening\/"},"modified":"2023-12-06T22:16:07","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T22:16:07","slug":"the-awakening","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/chapter\/the-awakening\/","title":{"raw":"The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1850\u20131904)","rendered":"The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1850\u20131904)"},"content":{"raw":"
Published 1899<\/div>\r\n

Chapter I<\/h1>\r\nA green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over:\r\n\r\n\u201cAllez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi<\/em>![footnote]Go away. For Heaven\u2019s sake. (French).[\/footnote] That's all right!\u201d\r\n\r\nHe could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier, unable to read his newspaper with any degree of comfort, arose with an expression and an exclamation of disgust.\r\n\r\nHe walked down the gallery and across the narrow \u201cbridges\u201d which connected the Lebrun cottages one with the other. He had been seated before the door of the main house. The parrot and the mockingbird were the property of Madame Lebrun, and they had the right to make all the noise they wished. Mr. Pontellier had the privilege of quitting their society when they ceased to be entertaining.\r\n\r\nHe stopped before the door of his own cottage, which was the fourth one from the main building and next to the last. Seating himself in a wicker rocker which was there, he once more applied himself to the task of reading the newspaper. The day was Sunday; the paper was a day old. The Sunday papers had not yet reached Grand Isle[footnote]A beach resort about 100 miles south of New Orleans, on the Gulf of Mexico.[\/footnote]. He was already acquainted with the market reports, and he glanced restlessly over the editorials and bits of news which he had not had time to read before quitting New Orleans the day before.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier wore eye-glasses. He was a man of forty, of medium height and rather slender build; he stooped a little. His hair was brown and straight, parted on one side. His beard was neatly and closely trimmed.\r\n\r\nOnce in a while he withdrew his glance from the newspaper and looked about him. There was more noise than ever over at the house. The main building was called \u201cthe house,\u201d to distinguish it from the cottages. The chattering and whistling birds were still at it. Two young girls, the Farival twins, were playing a duet from \u201cZampa\u201d[footnote]A romantic opera by Louis H\u00e9rold (1791-1833).[\/footnote] upon the piano. Madame Lebrun was bustling in and out, giving orders in a high key to a yard-boy whenever she got inside the house, and directions in an equally high voice to a dining-room servant whenever she got outside. She was a fresh, pretty woman, clad always in white with elbow sleeves. Her starched skirts crinkled as she came and went. Farther down, before one of the cottages, a lady in black was walking demurely up and down, telling her beads. A good many persons of the pension had gone over to the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re \u00a0Caminada[footnote]An island near Grand Isle in the Gulf of Mexico.[\/footnote]<\/em> in Beaudelet's lugger[footnote]A small fishing or coasting boat.[\/footnote] to hear mass. Some young people were out under the water-oaks playing croquet. Mr. Pontellier's two children were there\u2014sturdy little fellows of four and five. A quadroon[footnote]Someone with one-quarter African-American ancestry.[\/footnote] nurse followed them about with a faraway, meditative air.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier finally lit a cigar and began to smoke, letting the paper drag idly from his hand. He fixed his gaze upon a white sunshade[footnote]Parasol.[\/footnote] that was advancing at snail's pace from the beach. He could see it plainly between the gaunt trunks of the water-oaks and across the stretch of yellow camomile. The gulf looked far away, melting hazily into the blue of the horizon. The sunshade continued to approach slowly. Beneath its pink-lined shelter were his wife, Mrs. Pontellier, and young Robert Lebrun. When they reached the cottage, the two seated themselves with some appearance of fatigue upon the upper step of the porch, facing each other, each leaning against a supporting post.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat folly! to bathe at such an hour in such heat!\u201d exclaimed Mr. Pontellier. He himself had taken a plunge at daylight. That was why the morning seemed long to him.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou are burnt beyond recognition,\u201d he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage. She held up her hands, strong, shapely hands, and surveyed them critically, drawing up her lawn[footnote]Linen or muslin.[\/footnote] sleeves above the wrists. Looking at them reminded her of her rings, which she had given to her husband before leaving for the beach. She silently reached out to him, and he, understanding, took the rings from his vest pocket and dropped them into her open palm. She slipped them upon her fingers; then clasping her knees, she looked across at Robert and began to laugh. The rings sparkled upon her fingers. He sent back an answering smile.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat is it?\u201d asked Pontellier, looking lazily and amused from one to the other. It was some utter nonsense; some adventure out there in the water, and they both tried to relate it at once. It did not seem half so amusing when told. They realized this, and so did Mr. Pontellier. He yawned and stretched himself. Then he got up, saying he had half a mind to go over to Klein's hotel and play a game of billiards.\r\n\r\n\u201cCome go along, Lebrun,\u201d he proposed to Robert. But Robert admitted quite frankly that he preferred to stay where he was and talk to Mrs. Pontellier.\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, send him about his business when he bores you, Edna,\u201d instructed her husband as he prepared to leave.\r\n\r\n\u201cHere, take the umbrella,\u201d she exclaimed, holding it out to him. He accepted the sunshade, and lifting it over his head descended the steps and walked away.\r\n\r\n\u201cComing back to dinner?\u201d his wife called after him. He halted a moment and shrugged his shoulders. He felt in his vest pocket; there was a ten-dollar bill there. He did not know; perhaps he would return for the early dinner and perhaps he would not. It all depended upon the company which he found over at Klein's and the size of \u201cthe game.\u201d He did not say this, but she understood it, and laughed, nodding good-bye to him.\r\n\r\nBoth children wanted to follow their father when they saw him starting out. He kissed them and promised to bring them back bonbons and peanuts.\r\n
\r\n

Chapter I Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. What might the image of the caged bird suggest?<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Pontellier is described as thinking of his sunburnt wife as a \u201cvaluable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage\u201d? Look up the rights of the husband in the Napoleonic Code.<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Give your first impressions of Robert Lebrun. What are some of his traits?<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. What indications are there that the relationship between Edna and her husband is less than ideal?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    Chapter II<\/h1>\r\nMrs. Pontellier's eyes were quick and bright; they were a yellowish brown, about the color of her hair. She had a way of turning them swiftly upon an object and holding them there as if lost in some inward maze of contemplation or thought.\r\n\r\nHer eyebrows were a shade darker than her hair. They were thick and almost horizontal, emphasizing the depth of her eyes. She was rather handsome than beautiful. Her face was captivating by reason of a certain frankness of expression and a contradictory subtle play of features. Her manner was engaging.\r\n\r\nRobert rolled a cigarette. He smoked cigarettes because he could not afford cigars, he said. He had a cigar in his pocket which Mr. Pontellier had presented him with, and he was saving it for his after-dinner smoke.\r\n\r\nThis seemed quite proper and natural on his part. In coloring he was not unlike his companion. A clean-shaved face made the resemblance more pronounced than it would otherwise have been. There rested no shadow of care upon his open countenance. His eyes gathered in and reflected the light and languor of the summer day.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier reached over for a palm-leaf fan that lay on the porch and began to fan herself, while Robert sent between his lips light puffs from his cigarette. They chatted incessantly: about the things around them; their amusing adventure out in the water\u2014it had again assumed its entertaining aspect; about the wind, the trees, the people who had gone to the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re<\/em>; about the children playing croquet under the oaks, and the Farival twins, who were now performing the overture to \u201cThe Poet and the Peasant.\u201d[footnote]An operetta by Franz von Supp\u00e9 (1819-1895).[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nRobert talked a good deal about himself. He was very young, and did not know any better. Mrs. Pontellier talked a little about herself for the same reason. Each was interested in what the other said. Robert spoke of his intention to go to Mexico in the autumn, where fortune awaited him. He was always intending to go to Mexico, but some way never got there. Meanwhile he held on to his modest position in a mercantile house in New Orleans, where an equal familiarity with English, French and Spanish gave him no small value as a clerk and correspondent.\r\n\r\nHe was spending his summer vacation, as he always did, with his mother at Grand Isle. In former times, before Robert could remember, \u201cthe house\u201d had been a summer luxury of the Lebruns. Now, flanked by its dozen or more cottages, which were always filled with exclusive visitors from the \u201cQuartier Fran\u00e7ais<\/em>,\u201d[footnote]French Quarter, the oldest part of New Orleans, then occupied by wealthier families.[\/footnote] it enabled Madame Lebrun to maintain the easy and comfortable existence which appeared to be her birthright.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier talked about her father's Mississippi plantation and her girlhood home in the old Kentucky bluegrass country. She was an American woman, with a small infusion of French which seemed to have been lost in dilution. She read a letter from her sister, who was away in the East, and who had engaged herself to be married. Robert was interested, and wanted to know what manner of girls the sisters were, what the father was like, and how long the mother had been dead.\r\n\r\nWhen Mrs. Pontellier folded the letter it was time for her to dress for the early dinner.\r\n\r\n\u201cI see L\u00e9once isn't coming back,\u201d she said, with a glance in the direction whence her husband had disappeared. Robert supposed he was not, as there were a good many New Orleans club men over at Klein's.\r\n\r\nWhen Mrs. Pontellier left him to enter her room, the young man descended the steps and strolled over toward the croquet players, where, during the half-hour before dinner, he amused himself with the little Pontellier children, who were very fond of him.\r\n
    \r\n

    Chapter II Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

    \r\n
      \r\n \t
    1. Describe Edna Pontellier. Where was she born and raised? How is she different from the Creoles like her husband L\u00e9once?<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. What do you learn about Mrs. Lebrun? Is there a Mr. Lebrun? How old is Robert, her eldest son?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

      Chapter III<\/h1>\r\nIt was eleven o'clock that night when Mr. Pontellier returned from Klein's hotel. He was in an excellent humor, in high spirits, and very talkative. His entrance awoke his wife, who was in bed and fast asleep when he came in. He talked to her while he undressed, telling her anecdotes and bits of news and gossip that he had gathered during the day. From his trousers pockets he took a fistful of crumpled bank notes and a good deal of silver coin, which he piled on the bureau indiscriminately with keys, knife, handkerchief, and whatever else happened to be in his pockets. She was overcome with sleep, and answered him with little half utterances.\r\n\r\nHe thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier had forgotten the bonbons and peanuts for the boys. Notwithstanding he loved them very much, and went into the adjoining room where they slept to take a look at them and make sure that they were resting comfortably. The result of his investigation was far from satisfactory. He turned and shifted the youngsters about in bed. One of them began to kick and talk about a basket full of crabs.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had ailed him all day. Mr. Pontellier was too well acquainted with fever symptoms to be mistaken. He assured her the child was consuming[footnote]Running a temperature.[\/footnote] at that moment in the next room.\r\n\r\nHe reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying at home to see that no harm befell them. He talked in a monotonous, insistent way.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier sprang out of bed and went into the next room. She soon came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow. She said nothing, and refused to answer her husband when he questioned her. When his cigar was smoked out he went to bed, and in half a minute he was fast asleep.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake. She began to cry a little, and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her peignoir[footnote]A woman\u2019s loose dressing gown.[\/footnote]<\/em>. Blowing out the candle, which her husband had left burning, she slipped her bare feet into a pair of satin mules[footnote]Slippers.[\/footnote] at the foot of the bed and went out on the porch, where she sat down in the wicker chair and began to rock gently to and fro.\r\n\r\nIt was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. A single faint light gleamed out from the hallway of the house. There was no sound abroad except the hooting of an old owl in the top of a water-oak, and the everlasting voice of the sea, that was not uplifted at that soft hour. It broke like a mournful lullaby upon the night.\r\n\r\nThe tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier's eyes that the damp sleeve of her peignoir<\/em> no longer served to dry them. She was holding the back of her chair with one hand; her loose sleeve had slipped almost to the shoulder of her uplifted arm. Turning, she thrust her face, steaming and wet, into the bend of her arm, and she went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, her arms. She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against the abundance of her husband's kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be tacit and self-understood.\r\n\r\nAn indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul's summer day. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood. She did not sit there inwardly upbraiding her husband, lamenting at Fate, which had directed her footsteps to the path which they had taken. She was just having a good cry all to herself. The mosquitoes made merry over her, biting her firm, round arms and nipping at her bare insteps.\r\n\r\nThe little stinging, buzzing imps succeeded in dispelling a mood which might have held her there in the darkness half a night longer.\r\n\r\nThe following morning Mr. Pontellier was up in good time to take the rockaway[footnote]A light four-wheeled carriage.[\/footnote] which was to convey him to the steamer at the wharf. He was returning to the city to his business, and they would not see him again at the Island till the coming Saturday. He had regained his composure, which seemed to have been somewhat impaired the night before. He was eager to be gone, as he looked forward to a lively week in Carondelet Street[footnote]Main financial district of New Orleans.[\/footnote].\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier gave his wife half of the money which he had brought away from Klein's hotel the evening before. She liked money as well as most women, and accepted it with no little satisfaction.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt will buy a handsome wedding present for Sister Janet!\u201d she exclaimed, smoothing out the bills as she counted them one by one.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! we'll treat Sister Janet better than that, my dear,\u201d he laughed, as he prepared to kiss her good-bye.\r\n\r\nThe boys were tumbling about, clinging to his legs, imploring that numerous things be brought back to them. Mr. Pontellier was a great favorite, and ladies, men, children, even nurses, were always on hand to say good-bye to him. His wife stood smiling and waving, the boys shouting, as he disappeared in the old rockaway down the sandy road.\r\n\r\nA few days later a box arrived for Mrs. Pontellier from New Orleans. It was from her husband. It was filled with friandises<\/em>,[footnote]Fancy sweets.[\/footnote] with luscious and toothsome bits\u2014the finest of fruits, p\u00e2t\u00e9s<\/em>,[footnote]Rich meat pastes such as foie gras<\/em>.[\/footnote] a rare bottle or two, delicious syrups, and bonbons in abundance.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier was always very generous with the contents of such a box; she was quite used to receiving them when away from home. The pates and fruit were brought to the dining-room; the bonbons were passed around. And the ladies, selecting with dainty and discriminating fingers and a little greedily, all declared that Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world. Mrs. Pontellier was forced to admit that she knew of none better.\r\n
      \r\n

      Chapter III Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

      \r\n
        \r\n \t
      1. Is L\u00e9once a considerate husband? Despite the generous allowance he gives to his wife after he returns to New Orleans, do you agree with the Grand Isle women\u2019s estimation of him as \u201cthe best husband in the world\u201d?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

        Chapter IV<\/h1>\r\nIt would have been a difficult matter for Mr. Pontellier to define to his own satisfaction or any one else's wherein his wife failed in her duty toward their children. It was something which he felt rather than perceived, and he never voiced the feeling without subsequent regret and ample atonement.\r\n\r\nIf one of the little Pontellier boys took a tumble whilst at play, he was not apt to rush crying to his mother's arms for comfort; he would more likely pick himself up, wipe the water out of his eyes and the sand out of his mouth, and go on playing. Tots as they were, they pulled together and stood their ground in childish battles with doubled fists and uplifted voices, which usually prevailed against the other mother-tots. The quadroon nurse was looked upon as a huge encumbrance, only good to button up waists and panties and to brush and part hair; since it seemed to be a law of society that hair must be parted and brushed.\r\n\r\nIn short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.\r\n\r\nMany of them were delicious in the role; one of them was the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm. If her husband did not adore her, he was a brute, deserving of death by slow torture. Her name was Ad\u00e8le Ratignolle. There are no words to describe her save the old ones that have served so often to picture the bygone heroine of romance and the fair lady of our dreams. There was nothing subtle or hidden about her charms; her beauty was all there, flaming and apparent: the spun-gold hair that comb nor confining pin could restrain; the blue eyes that were like nothing but sapphires; two lips that pouted, that were so red one could only think of cherries or some other delicious crimson fruit in looking at them. She was growing a little stout, but it did not seem to detract an iota from the grace of every step, pose, gesture. One would not have wanted her white neck a mite less full or her beautiful arms more slender. Never were hands more exquisite than hers, and it was a joy to look at them when she threaded her needle or adjusted her gold thimble to her taper[footnote]Tapered.[\/footnote] middle finger as she sewed away on the little night-drawers or fashioned a bodice or a bib.\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle was very fond of Mrs. Pontellier, and often she took her sewing and went over to sit with her in the afternoons. She was sitting there the afternoon of the day the box arrived from New Orleans. She had possession of the rocker, and she was busily engaged in sewing upon a diminutive pair of night-drawers.\r\n\r\nShe had brought the pattern of the drawers for Mrs. Pontellier to cut out\u2014a marvel of construction, fashioned to enclose a baby's body so effectually that only two small eyes might look out from the garment, like an Eskimo's. They were designed for winter wear, when treacherous drafts came down chimneys and insidious currents of deadly cold found their way through key-holes.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier's mind was quite at rest concerning the present material needs of her children, and she could not see the use of anticipating and making winter night garments the subject of her summer meditations. But she did not want to appear unamiable and uninterested, so she had brought forth newspapers, which she spread upon the floor of the gallery, and under Madame Ratignolle's directions she had cut a pattern of the impervious garment.\r\n\r\nRobert was there, seated as he had been the Sunday before, and Mrs. Pontellier also occupied her former position on the upper step, leaning listlessly against the post. Beside her was a box of bonbons, which she held out at intervals to Madame Ratignolle.\r\n\r\nThat lady seemed at a loss to make a selection, but finally settled upon a stick of nougat, wondering if it were not too rich; whether it could possibly hurt her. Madame Ratignolle had been married seven years. About every two years she had a baby. At that time she had three babies, and was beginning to think of a fourth one. She was always talking about her \u201ccondition.\u201d Her \u201ccondition\u201d was in no way apparent, and no one would have known a thing about it but for her persistence in making it the subject of conversation.\r\n\r\nRobert started to reassure her, asserting that he had known a lady who had subsisted upon nougat during the entire\u2014but seeing the color mount into Mrs. Pontellier's face he checked himself and changed the subject.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier, though she had married a Creole, was not thoroughly at home in the society of Creoles[footnote]A descendant of the original French or Spanish settlers.[\/footnote]; never before had she been thrown so intimately among them. There were only Creoles that summer at Lebrun's. They all knew each other, and felt like one large family, among whom existed the most amicable relations. A characteristic which distinguished them and which impressed Mrs. Pontellier most forcibly was their entire absence of prudery. Their freedom of expression was at first incomprehensible to her, though she had no difficulty in reconciling it with a lofty chastity which in the Creole woman seems to be inborn and unmistakable.\r\n\r\nNever would Edna Pontellier forget the shock with which she heard Madame Ratignolle relating to old Monsieur Farival the harrowing story of one of her accouchements<\/em>,[footnote]Birth of a child (French).[\/footnote] withholding no intimate detail. She was growing accustomed to like shocks, but she could not keep the mounting color back from her cheeks. Oftener than once her coming had interrupted the droll story with which Robert was entertaining some amused group of married women.\r\n\r\nA book had gone the rounds of the pension. When it came her turn to read it, she did so with profound astonishment. She felt moved to read the book in secret and solitude, though none of the others had done so,\u2014to hide it from view at the sound of approaching footsteps. It was openly criticised and freely discussed at table. Mrs. Pontellier gave over being astonished, and concluded that wonders would never cease.\r\n
        \r\n

        Chapter IV Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

        \r\n
          \r\n \t
        1. In what way is Ad\u00e8le Ratignolle a character foil for Edna? Is Edna, like Ad\u00e8le, \u201cone of those women [who] idolize their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels\u201d?<\/li>\r\n \t
        2. Read Coventry Patmore\u2019s famous Victorian poem \u201cThe Angel in the House.\u201d How does Ad\u00e8le live up to this description of the Victorian mother? Edna? Read \"The Angel in the House\" and Virginia Woolf\u2019s attitude to the sentiments expressed in it<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

          Chapter V<\/h1>\r\nThey formed a congenial group sitting there that summer afternoon\u2014Madame Ratignolle sewing away, often stopping to relate a story or incident with much expressive gesture of her perfect hands; Robert and Mrs. Pontellier sitting idle, exchanging occasional words, glances or smiles which indicated a certain advanced stage of intimacy and camaraderie<\/em>.\r\n\r\nHe had lived in her shadow during the past month. No one thought anything of it. Many had predicted that Robert would devote himself to Mrs. Pontellier when he arrived. Since the age of fifteen, which was eleven years before, Robert each summer at Grand Isle had constituted himself the devoted attendant of some fair dame or damsel. Sometimes it was a young girl, again a widow; but as often as not it was some interesting married woman.\r\n\r\nFor two consecutive seasons he lived in the sunlight of Mademoiselle Duvign\u00e9's presence. But she died between summers; then Robert posed as an inconsolable, prostrating himself at the feet of Madame Ratignolle for whatever crumbs of sympathy and comfort she might be pleased to vouchsafe.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier liked to sit and gaze at her fair companion as she might look upon a faultless Madonna.\r\n\r\n\u201cCould any one fathom the cruelty beneath that fair exterior?\u201d murmured Robert. \u201cShe knew that I adored her once, and she let me adore her. It was 'Robert, come; go; stand up; sit down; do this; do that; see if the baby sleeps; my thimble, please, that I left God knows where. Come and read Daudet[footnote]Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897). French novelist.[\/footnote] to me while I sew.'\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cPar exemple<\/em>![footnote](French). Literally, for example, but here, \u201cFor heaven\u2019s sake.\u201d[\/footnote] I never had to ask. You were always there under my feet, like a troublesome cat.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou mean like an adoring dog. And just as soon as Ratignolle appeared on the scene, then it was<\/em> like a dog. 'Passez<\/em>! Adieu<\/em>! Allez vous-en<\/em>!'\u201d[footnote](French). Go on, good-bye, go away.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n\u201cPerhaps I feared to make Alphonse jealous,\u201d she interjoined, with excessive naivete. That made them all laugh. The right hand jealous of the left! The heart jealous of the soul! But for that matter, the Creole husband is never jealous; with him the gangrene passion is one which has become dwarfed by disuse.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile Robert, addressing Mrs Pontellier, continued to tell of his one-time hopeless passion for Madame Ratignolle; of sleepless nights, of consuming flames till the very sea sizzled when he took his daily plunge. While the lady at the needle kept up a little running, contemptuous comment:\r\n\r\n\u201cBlagueur<\/em>\u2014farceur<\/em>\u2014gros b\u00eate<\/em>, va<\/em>!\u201d[footnote]Joker, trickster, silly, come off it.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nHe never assumed this serio-comic tone when alone with Mrs. Pontellier. She never knew precisely what to make of it; at that moment it was impossible for her to guess how much of it was jest and what proportion was earnest. It was understood that he had often spoken words of love to Madame Ratignolle, without any thought of being taken seriously. Mrs. Pontellier was glad he had not assumed a similar role toward herself. It would have been unacceptable and annoying.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier had brought her sketching materials, which she sometimes dabbled with in an unprofessional way. She liked the dabbling. She felt in it satisfaction of a kind which no other employment afforded her.\r\n\r\nShe had long wished to try herself on Madame Ratignolle. Never had that lady seemed a more tempting subject than at that moment, seated there like some sensuous Madonna, with the gleam of the fading day enriching her splendid color.\r\n\r\nRobert crossed over and seated himself upon the step below Mrs. Pontellier, that he might watch her work. She handled her brushes with a certain ease and freedom which came, not from long and close acquaintance with them, but from a natural aptitude. Robert followed her work with close attention, giving forth little ejaculatory expressions of appreciation in French, which he addressed to Madame Ratignolle.\r\n\r\n\u201cMais ce n'est pas mal<\/em>! Elle s'y connait<\/em>, elle a de la force, oui<\/em>.\u201d[footnote]Rather good. She knows what she\u2019s doing. She is skilled, yes.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nDuring his oblivious attention he once quietly rested his head against Mrs. Pontellier's arm. As gently she repulsed him. Once again he repeated the offense. She could not but believe it to be thoughtlessness on his part; yet that was no reason she should submit to it. She did not remonstrate, except again to repulse him quietly but firmly. He offered no apology. The picture completed bore no resemblance to Madame Ratignolle. She was greatly disappointed to find that it did not look like her. But it was a fair enough piece of work, and in many respects satisfying.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier evidently did not think so. After surveying the sketch critically she drew a broad smudge of paint across its surface, and crumpled the paper between her hands.\r\n\r\nThe youngsters came tumbling up the steps, the quadroon following at the respectful distance which they required her to observe. Mrs. Pontellier made them carry her paints and things into the house. She sought to detain them for a little talk and some pleasantry. But they were greatly in earnest. They had only come to investigate the contents of the bonbon box. They accepted without murmuring what she chose to give them, each holding out two chubby hands scoop-like, in the vain hope that they might be filled; and then away they went.\r\n\r\nThe sun was low in the west, and the breeze soft and languorous that came up from the south, charged with the seductive odor of the sea. Children freshly befurbelowed[footnote]Ornamented with frill.[\/footnote], were gathering for their games under the oaks. Their voices were high and penetrating.\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle folded her sewing, placing thimble, scissors, and thread all neatly together in the roll, which she pinned securely. She complained of faintness. Mrs. Pontellier flew for the cologne water and a fan. She bathed Madame Ratignolle's face with cologne, while Robert plied the fan with unnecessary vigor.\r\n\r\nThe spell was soon over, and Mrs. Pontellier could not help wondering if there were not a little imagination responsible for its origin, for the rose tint had never faded from her friend's face.\r\n\r\nShe stood watching the fair woman walk down the long line of galleries with the grace and majesty which queens are sometimes supposed to possess. Her little ones ran to meet her. Two of them clung about her white skirts, the third she took from its nurse and with a thousand endearments bore it along in her own fond, encircling arms. Though, as everybody well knew, the doctor had forbidden her to lift so much as a pin!\r\n\r\n\u201cAre you going bathing?\u201d asked Robert of Mrs. Pontellier. It was not so much a question as a reminder.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, no,\u201d she answered, with a tone of indecision. \u201cI'm tired; I think not.\u201d Her glance wandered from his face away toward the Gulf, whose sonorous murmur reached her like a loving but imperative entreaty.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, come!\u201d he insisted. \u201cYou mustn't miss your bath. Come on. The water must be delicious; it will not hurt you. Come.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe reached up for her big, rough straw hat that hung on a peg outside the door, and put it on her head. They descended the steps, and walked away together toward the beach. The sun was low in the west and the breeze was soft and warm.\r\n
          \r\n

          Chapter V Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

          \r\n
            \r\n \t
          1. How is Robert Lebrun something of a courtly lover of poetic convention? Look up \"courtly love\" in the glossary of literary terms.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

            Chapter VI<\/h1>\r\nEdna Pontellier could not have told why, wishing to go to the beach with Robert, she should in the first place have declined, and in the second place have followed in obedience to one of the two contradictory impulses which impelled her.\r\n\r\nA certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,\u2014the light which, showing the way, forbids it.\r\n\r\nAt that early period it served but to bewilder her. It moved her to dreams, to thoughtfulness, to the shadowy anguish which had overcome her the midnight when she had abandoned herself to tears.\r\n\r\nIn short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight\u2014perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.\r\n\r\nBut the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!\r\n\r\nThe voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.\r\n\r\nThe voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.\r\n
            \r\n

            Chapter VI Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

            \r\n
              \r\n \t
            1. Suggest possible symbolic aspects of the sea in this chapter and throughout.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

              Chapter VII<\/h1>\r\nMrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature. Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life\u2014that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.\r\n\r\nThat summer at Grand Isle she began to loosen a little the mantle of reserve that had always enveloped her. There may have been\u2014there must have been\u2014influences, both subtle and apparent, working in their several ways to induce her to do this; but the most obvious was the influence of Ad\u00e8le Ratignolle. The excessive physical charm of the Creole had first attracted her, for Edna had a sensuous susceptibility to beauty. Then the candor of the woman's whole existence, which everyone might read, and which formed so striking a contrast to her own habitual reserve\u2014this might have furnished a link. Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.\r\n\r\nThe two women went away one morning to the beach together, arm in arm, under the huge white sunshade. Edna had prevailed upon Madame Ratignolle to leave the children behind, though she could not induce her to relinquish a diminutive roll of needlework, which Ad\u00e8le begged to be allowed to slip into the depths of her pocket. In some unaccountable way they had escaped from Robert.\r\n\r\nThe walk to the beach was no inconsiderable one, consisting as it did of a long, sandy path, upon which a sporadic and tangled growth that bordered it on either side made frequent and unexpected inroads. There were acres of yellow camomile reaching out on either hand. Further away still, vegetable gardens abounded, with frequent small plantations of orange or lemon trees intervening. The dark green clusters glistened from afar in the sun.\r\n\r\nThe women were both of goodly height, Madame Ratignolle possessing the more feminine and matronly figure. The charm of Edna Pontellier's physique stole insensibly upon you. The lines of her body were long, clean and symmetrical; it was a body which occasionally fell into splendid poses; there was no suggestion of the trim, stereotyped fashion-plate about it. A casual and indiscriminating observer, in passing, might not cast a second glance upon the figure. But with more feeling and discernment he would have recognized the noble beauty of its modeling, and the graceful severity of poise and movement, which made Edna Pontellier different from the crowd.\r\n\r\nShe wore a cool muslin that morning\u2014white, with a waving vertical line of brown running through it; also a white linen collar and the big straw hat which she had taken from the peg outside the door. The hat rested any way on her yellow-brown hair, that waved a little, was heavy, and clung close to her head.\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle, more careful of her complexion, had twined a gauze veil about her head. She wore dogskin gloves, with gauntlets that protected her wrists. She was dressed in pure white, with a fluffiness of ruffles that became her. The draperies and fluttering things which she wore suited her rich, luxuriant beauty as a greater severity of line could not have done.\r\n\r\nThere were a number of bath-houses along the beach, of rough but solid construction, built with small, protecting galleries facing the water. Each house consisted of two compartments, and each family at Lebrun's possessed a compartment for itself, fitted out with all the essential paraphernalia of the bath and whatever other conveniences the owners might desire. The two women had no intention of bathing; they had just strolled down to the beach for a walk and to be alone and near the water. The Pontellier and Ratignolle compartments adjoined one another under the same roof.\r\n\r\nMrs. Pontellier had brought down her key through force of habit. Unlocking the door of her bath-room she went inside, and soon emerged, bringing a rug, which she spread upon the floor of the gallery, and two huge hair pillows covered with crash[footnote]Coarse heavy fabric.[\/footnote], which she placed against the front of the building.\r\n\r\nThe two seated themselves there in the shade of the porch, side by side, with their backs against the pillows and their feet extended. Madame Ratignolle removed her veil, wiped her face with a rather delicate handkerchief, and fanned herself with the fan which she always carried suspended somewhere about her person by a long, narrow ribbon. Edna removed her collar and opened her dress at the throat. She took the fan from Madame Ratignolle and began to fan both herself and her companion. It was very warm, and for a while they did nothing but exchange remarks about the heat, the sun, the glare. But there was a breeze blowing, a choppy, stiff wind that whipped the water into froth. It fluttered the skirts of the two women and kept them for a while engaged in adjusting, readjusting, tucking in, securing hair-pins and hat-pins. A few persons were sporting some distance away in the water. The beach was very still of human sound at that hour. The lady in black was reading her morning devotions on the porch of a neighboring bathhouse. Two young lovers were exchanging their hearts' yearnings beneath the children's tent, which they had found unoccupied.\r\n\r\nEdna Pontellier, casting her eyes about, had finally kept them at rest upon the sea. The day was clear and carried the gaze out as far as the blue sky went; there were a few white clouds suspended idly over the horizon. A lateen[footnote]A triangular sail slung to a low mast.[\/footnote] sail was visible in the direction of Cat Island, and others to the south seemed almost motionless in the far distance.\r\n\r\n\u201cOf whom\u2014of what are you thinking?\u201d asked Ad\u00e8le of her companion, whose countenance she had been watching with a little amused attention, arrested by the absorbed expression which seemed to have seized and fixed every feature into a statuesque repose.\r\n\r\n\u201cNothing,\u201d returned Mrs. Pontellier, with a start, adding at once: \u201cHow stupid! But it seems to me it is the reply we make instinctively to such a question. Let me see,\u201d she went on, throwing back her head and narrowing her fine eyes till they shone like two vivid points of light. \u201cLet me see. I was really not conscious of thinking of anything; but perhaps I can retrace my thoughts.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! never mind!\u201d laughed Madame Ratignolle. \u201cI am not quite so exacting. I will let you off this time. It is really too hot to think, especially to think about thinking.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut for the fun of it,\u201d persisted Edna. \u201cFirst of all, the sight of the water stretching so far away, those motionless sails against the blue sky, made a delicious picture that I just wanted to sit and look at. The hot wind beating in my face made me think\u2014without any connection that I can trace of a summer day in Kentucky, of a meadow that seemed as big as the ocean to the very little girl walking through the grass, which was higher than her waist. She threw out her arms as if swimming when she walked, beating the tall grass as one strikes out in the water. Oh, I see the connection now!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere were you going that day in Kentucky, walking through the grass?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI don't remember now. I was just walking diagonally across a big field. My sun-bonnet obstructed the view. I could see only the stretch of green before me, and I felt as if I must walk on forever, without coming to the end of it. I don't remember whether I was frightened or pleased. I must have been entertained.\r\n\r\n\u201cLikely as not it was Sunday,\u201d she laughed; \u201cand I was running away from prayers, from the Presbyterian service, read in a spirit of gloom by my father that chills me yet to think of.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd have you been running away from prayers ever since, ma ch\u00e8re<\/em>?\u201d asked Madame Ratignolle, amused.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo! oh, no!\u201d Edna hastened to say. \u201cI was a little unthinking child in those days, just following a misleading impulse without question. On the contrary, during one period of my life religion took a firm hold upon me; after I was twelve and until\u2014until\u2014why, I suppose until now, though I never thought much about it\u2014just driven along by habit. But do you know,\u201d she broke off, turning her quick eyes upon Madame Ratignolle and leaning forward a little so as to bring her face quite close to that of her companion, \u201csometimes I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadow again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided.\u201d\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle laid her hand over that of Mrs. Pontellier, which was near her. Seeing that the hand was not withdrawn, she clasped it firmly and warmly. She even stroked it a little, fondly, with the other hand, murmuring in an undertone, \u201cPauvre ch\u00e9rie<\/em>.\u201d[footnote]French: \u201cpoor dear.\u201d[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nThe action was at first a little confusing to Edna, but she soon lent herself readily to the Creole's gentle caress. She was not accustomed to an outward and spoken expression of affection, either in herself or in others. She and her younger sister, Janet, had quarreled a good deal through force of unfortunate habit. Her older sister, Margaret, was matronly and dignified, probably from having assumed matronly and housewifely responsibilities too early in life, their mother having died when they were quite young, Margaret was not effusive; she was practical. Edna had had an occasional girl friend, but whether accidentally or not, they seemed to have been all of one type\u2014the self-contained. She never realized that the reserve of her own character had much, perhaps everything, to do with this. Her most intimate friend at school had been one of rather exceptional intellectual gifts, who wrote fine-sounding essays, which Edna admired and strove to imitate; and with her she talked and glowed over the English classics, and sometimes held religious and political controversies.\r\n\r\nEdna often wondered at one propensity which sometimes had inwardly disturbed her without causing any outward show or manifestation on her part. At a very early age\u2014perhaps it was when she traversed the ocean of waving grass\u2014she remembered that she had been passionately enamored of a dignified and sad-eyed cavalry officer who visited her father in Kentucky. She could not leave his presence when he was there, nor remove her eyes from his face, which was something like Napoleon's, with a lock of black hair failing across the forehead. But the cavalry officer melted imperceptibly out of her existence.\r\n\r\nAt another time her affections were deeply engaged by a young gentleman who visited a lady on a neighboring plantation. It was after they went to Mississippi to live. The young man was engaged to be married to the young lady, and they sometimes called upon Margaret, driving over of afternoons in a buggy. Edna was a little miss, just merging into her teens; and the realization that she herself was nothing, nothing, nothing to the engaged young man was a bitter affliction to her. But he, too, went the way of dreams.\r\n\r\nShe was a grown young woman when she was overtaken by what she supposed to be the climax of her fate. It was when the face and figure of a great tragedian began to haunt her imagination and stir her senses. The persistence of the infatuation lent it an aspect of genuineness. The hopelessness of it colored it with the lofty tones of a great passion.\r\n\r\nThe picture of the tragedian stood enframed upon her desk. Any one may possess the portrait of a tragedian without exciting suspicion or comment. (This was a sinister reflection which she cherished.) In the presence of others she expressed admiration for his exalted gifts, as she handed the photograph around and dwelt upon the fidelity of the likeness. When alone she sometimes picked it up and kissed the cold glass passionately.\r\n\r\nHer marriage to L\u00e9once Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate. It was in the midst of her secret great passion that she met him. He fell in love, as men are in the habit of doing, and pressed his suit with an earnestness and an ardor which left nothing to be desired. He pleased her; his absolute devotion flattered her. She fancied there was a sympathy of thought and taste between them, in which fancy she was mistaken. Add to this the violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic, and we need seek no further for the motives which led her to accept Monsieur Pontellier for her husband.\r\n\r\nThe acme of bliss, which would have been a marriage with the tragedian, was not for her in this world. As the devoted wife of a man who worshiped her, she felt she would take her place with a certain dignity in the world of reality, closing the portals forever behind her upon the realm of romance and dreams.\r\n\r\nBut it was not long before the tragedian had gone to join the cavalry officer and the engaged young man and a few others; and Edna found herself face to face with the realities. She grew fond of her husband, realizing with some unaccountable satisfaction that no trace of passion or excessive and fictitious warmth colored her affection, thereby threatening its dissolution.\r\n\r\nShe was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them. The year before they had spent part of the summer with their grandmother Pontellier in Iberville[footnote]A parish in Louisiana located south of Baton Rouge.[\/footnote]. Feeling secure regarding their happiness and welfare, she did not miss them except with an occasional intense longing. Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her.\r\n\r\nEdna did not reveal so much as all this to Madame Ratignolle that summer day when they sat with faces turned to the sea. But a good part of it escaped her. She had put her head down on Madame Ratignolle's shoulder. She was flushed and felt intoxicated with the sound of her own voice and the unaccustomed taste of candor. It muddled her like wine, or like a first breath of freedom.\r\n\r\nThere was the sound of approaching voices. It was Robert, surrounded by a troop of children, searching for them. The two little Pontelliers were with him, and he carried Madame Ratignolle's little girl in his arms. There were other children beside, and two nurse-maids followed, looking disagreeable and resigned.\r\n\r\nThe women at once rose and began to shake out their draperies and relax their muscles. Mrs. Pontellier threw the cushions and rug into the bath-house. The children all scampered off to the awning, and they stood there in a line, gazing upon the intruding lovers, still exchanging their vows and sighs. The lovers got up, with only a silent protest, and walked slowly away somewhere else.\r\n\r\nThe children possessed themselves of the tent, and Mrs. Pontellier went over to join them.\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle begged Robert to accompany her to the house; she complained of cramp in her limbs and stiffness of the joints. She leaned draggingly upon his arm as they walked.\r\n
              \r\n

              Chapter VII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

              \r\n
                \r\n \t
              1. What kind of relationship does Edna have with her two boys? Describe Edna\u2019s romantic experiences before she married L\u00e9once.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                Chapter VIII<\/h1>\r\n\u201cDo me a favor, Robert,\u201d spoke the pretty woman at his side, almost as soon as she and Robert had started their slow, homeward way. She looked up in his face, leaning on his arm beneath the encircling shadow of the umbrella which he had lifted.\r\n\r\n\u201cGranted; as many as you like,\u201d he returned, glancing down into her eyes that were full of thoughtfulness and some speculation.\r\n\r\n\u201cI only ask for one; let Mrs. Pontellier alone.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cTiens<\/em>!\u201d he exclaimed, with a sudden, boyish laugh. \u201cVoila que Madame Ratignolle est jalouse<\/em>!\u201d[footnote]French: \u201cLook.\u201d \u201cNotice that Mme Ratignolle is jealous.\u201d[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n\u201cNonsense! I'm in earnest; I mean what I say. Let Mrs. Pontellier alone.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy?\u201d he asked; himself growing serious at his companion's solicitation.\r\n\r\n\u201cShe is not one of us; she is not like us. She might make the unfortunate blunder of taking you seriously.\u201d\r\n\r\nHis face flushed with annoyance, and taking off his soft hat he began to beat it impatiently against his leg as he walked. \u201cWhy shouldn't she take me seriously?\u201d he demanded sharply. \u201cAm I a comedian, a clown, a jack-in-the-box? Why shouldn't she? You Creoles! I have no patience with you! Am I always to be regarded as a feature of an amusing programme? I hope Mrs. Pontellier does take me seriously. I hope she has discernment enough to find in me something besides the blagueur<\/em>. If I thought there was any doubt\u2014\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, enough, Robert!\u201d she broke into his heated outburst. \u201cYou are not thinking of what you are saying. You speak with about as little reflection as we might expect from one of those children down there playing in the sand. If your attentions to any married women here were ever offered with any intention of being convincing, you would not be the gentleman we all know you to be, and you would be unfit to associate with the wives and daughters of the people who trust you.\u201d\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle had spoken what she believed to be the law and the gospel. The young man shrugged his shoulders impatiently.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! well! That isn't it,\u201d slamming his hat down vehemently upon his head. \u201cYou ought to feel that such things are not flattering to say to a fellow.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cShould our whole intercourse consist of an exchange of compliments? Ma foi<\/em>!\u201d[footnote]French: Lit., \u201cmy faith\u201d; indeed; \u201cupon my word.\u201d[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n\u201cIt isn't pleasant to have a woman tell you\u2014\u201d he went on, unheedingly, but breaking off suddenly: \u201cNow if I were like Arobin\u2014you remember Alc\u00e9e Arobin and that story of the consul's wife at Biloxi?\u201d[footnote]A coastal resort city on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.[\/footnote] And he related the story of Alc\u00e9e Arobin and the consul's wife; and another about the tenor of the French Opera[footnote]French Opera in New Orleans, a distinguished American opera company.[\/footnote], who received letters which should never have been written; and still other stories, grave and gay, till Mrs. Pontellier and her possible propensity for taking young men seriously was apparently forgotten.\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle, when they had regained her cottage, went in to take the hour's rest which she considered helpful. Before leaving her, Robert begged her pardon for the impatience\u2014he called it rudeness\u2014with which he had received her well-meant caution.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou made one mistake, Ad\u00e8le,\u201d he said, with a light smile; \u201cthere is no earthly possibility of Mrs. Pontellier ever taking me seriously. You should have warned me against taking myself seriously. Your advice might then have carried some weight and given me subject for some reflection. Au revoir<\/em>. But you look tired,\u201d he added, solicitously. \u201cWould you like a cup of bouillon? Shall I stir you a toddy? Let me mix you a toddy with a drop of Angostura.\u201d[footnote]Aromatic bitters[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nShe acceded to the suggestion of bouillon, which was grateful and acceptable. He went himself to the kitchen, which was a building apart from the cottages and lying to the rear of the house. And he himself brought her the golden-brown bouillon, in a dainty S\u00e8vres<\/em>[footnote]Fine quality porcelain made at S\u00e8vres, near Paris.[\/footnote] cup, with a flaky cracker or two on the saucer.\r\n\r\nShe thrust a bare, white arm from the curtain which shielded her open door, and received the cup from his hands. She told him he was a bon gar\u00e7on[footnote](French), \u201cgood boy.\u201d[\/footnote]<\/em>, and she meant it. Robert thanked her and turned away toward \u201cthe house.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe lovers were just entering the grounds of the pension. They were leaning toward each other as the water-oaks bent from the sea. There was not a particle of earth beneath their feet. Their heads might have been turned upside-down, so absolutely did they tread upon blue ether. The lady in black, creeping behind them, looked a trifle paler and more jaded than usual. There was no sign of Mrs. Pontellier and the children. Robert scanned the distance for any such apparition. They would doubtless remain away till the dinner hour. The young man ascended to his mother's room. It was situated at the top of the house, made up of odd angles and a queer, sloping ceiling. Two broad dormer windows looked out toward the Gulf, and as far across it as a man's eye might reach. The furnishings of the room were light, cool, and practical.\r\n\r\nMadame Lebrun was busily engaged at the sewing-machine. A little black girl sat on the floor, and with her hands worked the treadle of the machine. The Creole woman does not take any chances which may be avoided of imperiling her health.\r\n\r\nRobert went over and seated himself on the broad sill of one of the dormer windows. He took a book from his pocket and began energetically to read it, judging by the precision and frequency with which he turned the leaves. The sewing-machine made a resounding clatter in the room; it was of a ponderous, by-gone make. In the lulls, Robert and his mother exchanged bits of desultory conversation.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere is Mrs. Pontellier?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDown at the beach with the children.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI promised to lend her the Goncourt[footnote]An unnamed novel by French author Edmond de Goncourt (1822-1896). His brother Jules (1830-1870) collaborated with Edmond on several novels. Edmond established the famous literary Prix Goncourt in 1903 in his memory.[\/footnote]. Don't forget to take it down when you go; it's there on the bookshelf over the small table.\u201d Clatter, clatter, clatter, bang! for the next five or eight minutes.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere is Victor going with the rockaway?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThe rockaway? Victor?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes; down there in front. He seems to be getting ready to drive away somewhere.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cCall him.\u201d Clatter, clatter!\r\n\r\nRobert uttered a shrill, piercing whistle which might have been heard back at the wharf.\r\n\r\n\u201cHe won't look up.\u201d\r\n\r\nMadame Lebrun flew to the window. She called \u201cVictor!\u201d She waved a handkerchief and called again. The young fellow below got into the vehicle and started the horse off at a gallop.\r\n\r\nMadame Lebrun went back to the machine, crimson with annoyance. Victor was the younger son and brother\u2014a t\u00eate mont\u00e9e[footnote](French) An impulsive, headstrong person.[\/footnote]<\/em>, with a temper which invited violence and a will which no ax could break.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhenever you say the word I'm ready to thrash any amount of reason into him that he's able to hold.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIf your father had only lived!\u201d Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter, bang! It was a fixed belief with Madame Lebrun that the conduct of the universe and all things pertaining thereto would have been manifestly of a more intelligent and higher order had not Monsieur Lebrun been removed to other spheres during the early years of their married life.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat do you hear from Montel?\u201d Montel was a middle-aged gentleman whose vain ambition and desire for the past twenty years had been to fill the void which Monsieur Lebrun's taking off had left in the Lebrun household. Clatter, clatter, bang, clatter!\r\n\r\n\u201cI have a letter somewhere,\u201d looking in the machine drawer and finding the letter in the bottom of the workbasket. \u201cHe says to tell you he will be in Vera Cruz[footnote]Mexican port city on the Gulf of Mexico coast.[\/footnote] the beginning of next month,\u201d\u2014clatter, clatter!\u2014\u201cand if you still have the intention of joining him\u201d\u2014bang! clatter, clatter, bang!\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy didn't you tell me so before, mother? You know I wanted\u2014\u201d Clatter, clatter, clatter!\r\n\r\n\u201cDo you see Mrs. Pontellier starting back with the children? She will be in late to luncheon again. She never starts to get ready for luncheon till the last minute.\u201d Clatter, clatter! \u201cWhere are you going?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere did you say the Goncourt was?\u201d\r\n
                \r\n

                Chapter VIII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                \r\n
                  \r\n \t
                1. Does Ad\u00e8le think that Robert might be a threat to the Pontellier marriage?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                  Chapter IX<\/h1>\r\nEvery light in the hall was ablaze; every lamp turned as high as it could be without smoking the chimney or threatening explosion. The lamps were fixed at intervals against the wall, encircling the whole room. Someone had gathered orange and lemon branches, and with these fashioned graceful festoons between. The dark green of the branches stood out and glistened against the white muslin curtains which draped the windows, and which puffed, floated, and flapped at the capricious will of a stiff breeze that swept up from the Gulf.\r\n\r\nIt was Saturday night a few weeks after the intimate conversation held between Robert and Madame Ratignolle on their way from the beach. An unusual number of husbands, fathers, and friends had come down to stay over Sunday; and they were being suitably entertained by their families, with the material help of Madame Lebrun. The dining tables had all been removed to one end of the hall, and the chairs ranged about in rows and in clusters. Each little family group had had its say and exchanged its domestic gossip earlier in the evening. There was now an apparent disposition to relax; to widen the circle of confidences and give a more general tone to the conversation.\r\n\r\nMany of the children had been permitted to sit up beyond their usual bedtime. A small band of them were lying on their stomachs on the floor looking at the colored sheets of the comic papers which Mr. Pontellier had brought down. The little Pontellier boys were permitting them to do so, and making their authority felt.\r\n\r\nMusic, dancing, and a recitation or two were the entertainments furnished, or rather, offered. But there was nothing systematic about the programme, no appearance of prearrangement nor even premeditation.\r\n\r\nAt an early hour in the evening the Farival twins were prevailed upon to play the piano. They were girls of fourteen, always clad in the Virgin's colors, blue and white, having been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin at their baptism. They played a duet from \u201cZampa,\u201d and at the earnest solicitation of everyone present followed it with the overture to \u201cThe Poet and the Peasant.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAllez vous-en<\/em>! Sapristi<\/em>!\u201d shrieked the parrot outside the door. He was the only being present who possessed sufficient candor to admit that he was not listening to these gracious performances for the first time that summer. Old Monsieur Farival, grandfather of the twins, grew indignant over the interruption, and insisted upon having the bird removed and consigned to regions of darkness. Victor Lebrun objected; and his decrees were as immutable as those of Fate. The parrot fortunately offered no further interruption to the entertainment, the whole venom of his nature apparently having been cherished up and hurled against the twins in that one impetuous outburst.\r\n\r\nLater a young brother and sister gave recitations, which everyone present had heard many times at winter evening entertainments in the city.\r\n\r\nA little girl performed a skirt dance in the center of the floor. The mother played her accompaniments and at the same time watched her daughter with greedy admiration and nervous apprehension. She need have had no apprehension. The child was mistress of the situation. She had been properly dressed for the occasion in black tulle[footnote]A sheer often stiffened silk, rayon or nylon net used chiefly for veils or ballet costumes.[\/footnote] and black silk tights. Her little neck and arms were bare, and her hair, artificially crimped, stood out like fluffy black plumes over her head. Her poses were full of grace, and her little black-shod toes twinkled as they shot out and upward with a rapidity and suddenness which were bewildering.\r\n\r\nBut there was no reason why everyone should not dance. Madame Ratignolle could not, so it was she who gaily consented to play for the others. She played very well, keeping excellent waltz time and infusing an expression into the strains which was indeed inspiring. She was keeping up her music on account of the children, she said; because she and her husband both considered it a means of brightening the home and making it attractive.\r\n\r\nAlmost everyone danced but the twins, who could not be induced to separate during the brief period when one or the other should be whirling around the room in the arms of a man. They might have danced together, but they did not think of it.\r\n\r\nThe children were sent to bed. Some went submissively; others with shrieks and protests as they were dragged away. They had been permitted to sit up till after the ice-cream, which naturally marked the limit of human indulgence.\r\n\r\nThe ice-cream was passed around with cake\u2014gold and silver cake arranged on platters in alternate slices; it had been made and frozen during the afternoon back of the kitchen by two black women, under the supervision of Victor. It was pronounced a great success\u2014excellent if it had only contained a little less vanilla or a little more sugar, if it had been frozen a degree harder, and if the salt might have been kept out of portions of it. Victor was proud of his achievement, and went about recommending it and urging everyone to partake of it to excess.\r\n\r\nAfter Mrs. Pontellier had danced twice with her husband, once with Robert, and once with Monsieur Ratignolle, who was thin and tall and swayed like a reed in the wind when he danced, she went out on the gallery and seated herself on the low window-sill, where she commanded a view of all that went on in the hall and could look out toward the Gulf. There was a soft effulgence in the east. The moon was coming up, and its mystic shimmer was casting a million lights across the distant, restless water.\r\n\r\n\u201cWould you like to hear Mademoiselle Reisz play?\u201d asked Robert, coming out on the porch where she was. Of course Edna would like to hear Mademoiselle Reisz play; but she feared it would be useless to entreat her.\r\n\r\n\u201cI'll ask her,\u201d he said. \u201cI'll tell her that you want to hear her. She likes you. She will come.\u201d He turned and hurried away to one of the far cottages, where Mademoiselle Reisz was shuffling away. She was dragging a chair in and out of her room, and at intervals objecting to the crying of a baby, which a nurse in the adjoining cottage was endeavoring to put to sleep. She was a disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who had quarreled with almost everyone, owing to a temper which was self-assertive and a disposition to trample upon the rights of others. Robert prevailed upon her without any too great difficulty.\r\n\r\nShe entered the hall with him during a lull in the dance. She made an awkward, imperious little bow as she went in. She was a homely woman, with a small weazened[footnote]Wizened, wrinkled, dry.[\/footnote] face and body and eyes that glowed. She had absolutely no taste in dress, and wore a batch of rusty black lace with a bunch of artificial violets pinned to the side of her hair.\r\n\r\n\u201cAsk Mrs. Pontellier what she would like to hear me play,\u201d she requested of Robert. She sat perfectly still before the piano, not touching the keys, while Robert carried her message to Edna at the window. A general air of surprise and genuine satisfaction fell upon everyone as they saw the pianist enter. There was a settling down, and a prevailing air of expectancy everywhere. Edna was a trifle embarrassed at being thus signaled out for the imperious little woman's favor. She would not dare to choose, and begged that Mademoiselle Reisz would please herself in her selections.\r\n\r\nEdna was what she herself called very fond of music. Musical strains, well rendered, had a way of evoking pictures in her mind. She sometimes liked to sit in the room of mornings when Madame Ratignolle played or practiced. One piece which that lady played Edna had entitled \u201cSolitude.\u201d It was a short, plaintive, minor strain. The name of the piece was something else, but she called it \u201cSolitude.\u201d When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him.\r\n\r\nAnother piece called to her mind a dainty young woman clad in an Empire gown[footnote]A high-waisted gown dating back to Napoleon\u2019s first French Empire and popularized by the Empress Jos\u00e9phine.[\/footnote], taking mincing dancing steps as she came down a long avenue between tall hedges. Again, another reminded her of children at play, and still another of nothing on earth but a demure lady stroking a cat.\r\n\r\nThe very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier's spinal column. It was not the first time she had heard an artist at the piano. Perhaps it was the first time she was ready, perhaps the first time her being was tempered to take an impress of the abiding truth.\r\n\r\nShe waited for the material pictures which she thought would gather and blaze before her imagination. She waited in vain. She saw no pictures of solitude, of hope, of longing, or of despair. But the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body. She trembled, she was choking, and the tears blinded her.\r\n\r\nMademoiselle had finished. She arose, and bowing her stiff, lofty bow, she went away, stopping for neither thanks nor applause. As she passed along the gallery she patted Edna upon the shoulder.\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, how did you like my music?\u201d she asked. The young woman was unable to answer; she pressed the hand of the pianist convulsively. Mademoiselle Reisz perceived her agitation and even her tears. She patted her again upon the shoulder as she said:\r\n\r\n\u201cYou are the only one worth playing for. Those others? Bah!\u201d and she went shuffling and sidling on down the gallery toward her room.\r\n\r\nBut she was mistaken about \u201cthose others.\u201d Her playing had aroused a fever of enthusiasm. \u201cWhat passion!\u201d \u201cWhat an artist!\u201d \u201cI have always said no one could play Chopin[footnote]Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin (1810-1849). A Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era.[\/footnote] like Mademoiselle Reisz!\u201d \u201cThat last prelude! Bon Dieu<\/em>![footnote](French) \u201cGood God!\u201d[\/footnote] It shakes a man!\u201d\r\n\r\nIt was growing late, and there was a general disposition to disband. But someone, perhaps it was Robert, thought of a bath[footnote]A swim.[\/footnote] at that mystic hour and under that mystic moon.\r\n
                  \r\n

                  Chapter IX Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                  \r\n
                    \r\n \t
                  1. Who is Mademoiselle Reisz and how is she different from Edna?<\/li>\r\n \t
                  2. How does Edna respond to the music of Ad\u00e8le? To that of Mademoiselle Reisz? Might the parrot\u2019s words apply to any one character in the novella?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                    Chapter X<\/h1>\r\nAt all events Robert proposed it, and there was not a dissenting voice. There was not one but was ready to follow when he led the way. He did not lead the way, however, he directed the way; and he himself loitered behind with the lovers, who had betrayed a disposition to linger and hold themselves apart. He walked between them, whether with malicious or mischievous intent was not wholly clear, even to himself.\r\n\r\nThe Pontelliers and Ratignolles walked ahead; the women leaning upon the arms of their husbands. Edna could hear Robert's voice behind them, and could sometimes hear what he said. She wondered why he did not join them. It was unlike him not to. Of late he had sometimes held away from her for an entire day, redoubling his devotion upon the next and the next, as though to make up for hours that had been lost. She missed him the days when some pretext served to take him away from her, just as one misses the sun on a cloudy day without having thought much about the sun when it was shining.\r\n\r\nThe people walked in little groups toward the beach. They talked and laughed; some of them sang. There was a band playing down at Klein's hotel, and the strains reached them faintly, tempered by the distance. There were strange, rare odors abroad\u2014a tangle of the sea smell and of weeds and damp, new-plowed earth, mingled with the heavy perfume of a field of white blossoms somewhere near. But the night sat lightly upon the sea and the land. There was no weight of darkness; there were no shadows. The white light of the moon had fallen upon the world like the mystery and the softness of sleep.\r\n\r\nMost of them walked into the water as though into a native element. The sea was quiet now, and swelled lazily in broad billows that melted into one another and did not break except upon the beach in little foamy crests that coiled back like slow, white serpents.\r\n\r\nEdna had attempted all summer to learn to swim. She had received instructions from both the men and women; in some instances from the children. Robert had pursued a system of lessons almost daily; and he was nearly at the point of discouragement in realizing the futility of his efforts. A certain ungovernable dread hung about her when in the water, unless there was a hand near by that might reach out and reassure her.\r\n\r\nBut that night she was like the little tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone, boldly and with over-confidence. She could have shouted for joy. She did shout for joy, as with a sweeping stroke or two she lifted her body to the surface of the water.\r\n\r\nA feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.\r\n\r\nHer unlooked-for achievement was the subject of wonder, applause, and admiration. Each one congratulated himself that his special teachings had accomplished this desired end.\r\n\r\n\u201cHow easy it is!\u201d she thought. \u201cIt is nothing,\u201d she said aloud; \u201cwhy did I not discover before that it was nothing. Think of the time I have lost splashing about like a baby!\u201d She would not join the groups in their sports and bouts, but intoxicated with her newly conquered power, she swam out alone.\r\n\r\nShe turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude, which the vast expanse of water, meeting and melting with the moonlit sky, conveyed to her excited fancy. As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself.\r\n\r\nOnce she turned and looked toward the shore, toward the people she had left there. She had not gone any great distance\u2014that is, what would have been a great distance for an experienced swimmer. But to her unaccustomed vision the stretch of water behind her assumed the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would never be able to overcome.\r\n\r\nA quick vision of death smote her soul, and for a second of time appalled and enfeebled her senses. But by an effort she rallied her staggering faculties and managed to regain the land.\r\n\r\nShe made no mention of her encounter with death and her flash of terror, except to say to her husband, \u201cI thought I should have perished out there alone.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou were not so very far, my dear; I was watching you,\u201d he told her.\r\n\r\nEdna went at once to the bath-house, and she had put on her dry clothes and was ready to return home before the others had left the water. She started to walk away alone. They all called to her and shouted to her. She waved a dissenting hand, and went on, paying no further heed to their renewed cries which sought to detain her.\r\n\r\n\u201cSometimes I am tempted to think that Mrs. Pontellier is capricious,\u201d said Madame Lebrun, who was amusing herself immensely and feared that Edna's abrupt departure might put an end to the pleasure.\r\n\r\n\u201cI know she is,\u201d assented Mr. Pontellier; \u201csometimes, not often.\u201d\r\n\r\nEdna had not traversed a quarter of the distance on her way home before she was overtaken by Robert.\r\n\r\n\u201cDid you think I was afraid?\u201d she asked him, without a shade of annoyance.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; I knew you weren't afraid.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThen why did you come? Why didn't you stay out there with the others?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI never thought of it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThought of what?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOf anything. What difference does it make?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI'm very tired,\u201d she uttered, complainingly.\r\n\r\n\u201cI know you are.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou don't know anything about it. Why should you know? I never was so exhausted in my life. But it isn't unpleasant. A thousand emotions have swept through me to-night. I don't comprehend half of them. Don't mind what I'm saying; I am just thinking aloud. I wonder if I shall ever be stirred again as Mademoiselle Reisz's playing moved me to-night. I wonder if any night on earth will ever again be like this one. It is like a night in a dream. The people about me are like some uncanny, half-human beings. There must be spirits abroad to-night.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThere are,\u201d whispered Robert, \u201cDidn't you know this was the twenty-eighth of August?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThe twenty-eighth of August?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes. On the twenty-eighth of August, at the hour of midnight, and if the moon is shining\u2014the moon must be shining\u2014a spirit that has haunted these shores for ages rises up from the Gulf. With its own penetrating vision the spirit seeks someone mortal worthy to hold him company, worthy of being exalted for a few hours into realms of the semi-celestials. His search has always hitherto been fruitless, and he has sunk back, disheartened, into the sea. But to-night he found Mrs. Pontellier. Perhaps he will never wholly release her from the spell. Perhaps she will never again suffer a poor, unworthy earthling to walk in the shadow of her divine presence.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDon't banter me,\u201d she said, wounded at what appeared to be his flippancy. He did not mind the entreaty, but the tone with its delicate note of pathos was like a reproach. He could not explain; he could not tell her that he had penetrated her mood and understood. He said nothing except to offer her his arm, for, by her own admission, she was exhausted. She had been walking alone with her arms hanging limp, letting her white skirts trail along the dewy path. She took his arm, but she did not lean upon it. She let her hand lie listlessly, as though her thoughts were elsewhere\u2014somewhere in advance of her body, and she was striving to overtake them.\r\n\r\nRobert assisted her into the hammock which swung from the post before her door out to the trunk of a tree.\r\n\r\n\u201cWill you stay out here and wait for Mr. Pontellier?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cI'll stay out here. Good-night.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cShall I get you a pillow?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThere's one here,\u201d she said, feeling about, for they were in the shadow.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt must be soiled; the children have been tumbling it about.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo matter.\u201d And having discovered the pillow, she adjusted it beneath her head. She extended herself in the hammock with a deep breath of relief. She was not a supercilious or an over-dainty woman. She was not much given to reclining in the hammock, and when she did so it was with no cat-like suggestion of voluptuous ease, but with a beneficent repose which seemed to invade her whole body.\r\n\r\n\u201cShall I stay with you till Mr. Pontellier comes?\u201d asked Robert, seating himself on the outer edge of one of the steps and taking hold of the hammock rope which was fastened to the post.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf you wish. Don't swing the hammock. Will you get my white shawl which I left on the window-sill over at the house?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAre you chilly?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; but I shall be presently.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cPresently?\u201d he laughed. \u201cDo you know what time it is? How long are you going to stay out here?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI don't know. Will you get the shawl?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOf course I will,\u201d he said, rising. He went over to the house, walking along the grass. She watched his figure pass in and out of the strips of moonlight. It was past midnight. It was very quiet.\r\n\r\nWhen he returned with the shawl she took it and kept it in her hand. She did not put it around her.\r\n\r\n\u201cDid you say I should stay till Mr. Pontellier came back?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI said you might if you wished to.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe seated himself again and rolled a cigarette, which he smoked in silence. Neither did Mrs. Pontellier speak. No multitude of words could have been more significant than those moments of silence, or more pregnant with the first-felt throbbings of desire.\r\n\r\nWhen the voices of the bathers were heard approaching, Robert said good-night. She did not answer him. He thought she was asleep. Again she watched his figure pass in and out of the strips of moonlight as he walked away.\r\n
                    \r\n

                    Chapter X Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                    \r\n
                      \r\n \t
                    1. Why does Edna\u2019s successful swim make her begin to feel differently about herself and about her husband, who insists that she was not \u201cso very far, my dear, I was watching you\u201d? How is the swimming episode an example of foreshadowing?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                      Chapter XI<\/h1>\r\n\u201cWhat are you doing out here, Edna? I thought I should find you in bed,\u201d said her husband, when he discovered her lying there. He had walked up with Madame Lebrun and left her at the house. His wife did not reply.\r\n\r\n\u201cAre you asleep?\u201d he asked, bending down close to look at her.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo.\u201d Her eyes gleamed bright and intense, with no sleepy shadows, as they looked into his.\r\n\r\n\u201cDo you know it is past one o'clock? Come on,\u201d and he mounted the steps and went into their room.\r\n\r\n\u201cEdna!\u201d called Mr. Pontellier from within, after a few moments had gone by.\r\n\r\n\u201cDon't wait for me,\u201d she answered. He thrust his head through the door.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou will take cold out there,\u201d he said, irritably. \u201cWhat folly is this? Why don't you come in?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt isn't cold; I have my shawl.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThe mosquitoes will devour you.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThere are no mosquitoes.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe heard him moving about the room; every sound indicating impatience and irritation. Another time she would have gone in at his request. She would, through habit, have yielded to his desire; not with any sense of submission or obedience to his compelling wishes, but unthinkingly, as we walk, move, sit, stand, go through the daily treadmill of the life which has been portioned out to us.\r\n\r\n\u201cEdna, dear, are you not coming in soon?\u201d he asked again, this time fondly, with a note of entreaty.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; I am going to stay out here.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThis is more than folly,\u201d he blurted out. \u201cI can't permit you to stay out there all night. You must come in the house instantly.\u201d\r\n\r\nWith a writhing motion she settled herself more securely in the hammock. She perceived that her will had blazed up, stubborn and resistant. She could not at that moment have done other than denied and resisted. She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered that she had. But she could not realize why or how she should have yielded, feeling as she then did.\r\n\r\n\u201cL\u00e9once, go to bed,\u201d she said, \u201cI mean to stay out here. I don't wish to go in, and I don't intend to. Don't speak to me like that again; I shall not answer you.\u201d\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier had prepared for bed, but he slipped on an extra garment. He opened a bottle of wine, of which he kept a small and select supply in a buffet of his own. He drank a glass of the wine and went out on the gallery and offered a glass to his wife. She did not wish any. He drew up the rocker, hoisted his slippered feet on the rail, and proceeded to smoke a cigar. He smoked two cigars; then he went inside and drank another glass of wine. Mrs. Pontellier again declined to accept a glass when it was offered to her. Mr. Pontellier once more seated himself with elevated feet, and after a reasonable interval of time smoked some more cigars.\r\n\r\nEdna began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul. The physical need for sleep began to overtake her; the exuberance which had sustained and exalted her spirit left her helpless and yielding to the conditions which crowded her in.\r\n\r\nThe stillest hour of the night had come, the hour before dawn, when the world seems to hold its breath. The moon hung low, and had turned from silver to copper in the sleeping sky. The old owl no longer hooted, and the water-oaks had ceased to moan as they bent their heads.\r\n\r\nEdna arose, cramped from lying so long and still in the hammock. She tottered up the steps, clutching feebly at the post before passing into the house.\r\n\r\n\u201cAre you coming in, L\u00e9once?\u201d she asked, turning her face toward her husband.\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, dear,\u201d he answered, with a glance following a misty puff of smoke. \u201cJust as soon as I have finished my cigar.\u201d\r\n
                      \r\n

                      Chapter XI Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                      \r\n
                        \r\n \t
                      1. How does Edna\u2019s resistance to L\u00e9once\u2019s will differ from previous conflicts between them?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                        Chapter XII<\/h1>\r\nShe slept but a few hours. They were troubled and feverish hours, disturbed with dreams that were intangible, that eluded her, leaving only an impression upon her half-awakened senses of something unattainable. She was up and dressed in the cool of the early morning. The air was invigorating and steadied somewhat her faculties. However, she was not seeking refreshment or help from any source, either external or from within. She was blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she had placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed her soul of responsibility.\r\n\r\nMost of the people at that early hour were still in bed and asleep. A few, who intended to go over to the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re <\/em>\u00a0for mass, were moving about. The lovers, who had laid their plans the night before, were already strolling toward the wharf. The lady in black, with her Sunday prayer-book, velvet and gold-clasped, and her Sunday silver beads, was following them at no great distance. Old Monsieur Farival was up, and was more than half inclined to do anything that suggested itself. He put on his big straw hat, and taking his umbrella from the stand in the hall, followed the lady in black, never overtaking her.\r\n\r\nThe little negro girl who worked Madame Lebrun's sewing-machine was sweeping the galleries with long, absent-minded strokes of the broom. Edna sent her up into the house to awaken Robert.\r\n\r\n\u201cTell him I am going to the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re <\/em>\u00a0. The boat is ready; tell him to hurry.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe had soon joined her. She had never sent for him before. She had never asked for him. She had never seemed to want him before. She did not appear conscious that she had done anything unusual in commanding his presence. He was apparently equally unconscious of anything extraordinary in the situation. But his face was suffused with a quiet glow when he met her.\r\n\r\nThey went together back to the kitchen to drink coffee. There was no time to wait for any nicety of service. They stood outside the window and the cook passed them their coffee and a roll, which they drank and ate from the window-sill. Edna said it tasted good.\r\n\r\nShe had not thought of coffee nor of anything. He told her he had often noticed that she lacked forethought.\r\n\r\n\u201cWasn't it enough to think of going to the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re <\/em>\u00a0\u00a0and waking you up?\u201d she laughed. \u201cDo I have to think of everything?\u2014as L\u00e9once says when he's in a bad humor. I don't blame him; he'd never be in a bad humor if it weren't for me.\u201d\r\n\r\nThey took a short cut across the sands. At a distance they could see the curious procession moving toward the wharf\u2014the lovers, shoulder to shoulder, creeping; the lady in black, gaining steadily upon them; old Monsieur Farival, losing ground inch by inch, and a young barefooted Spanish girl, with a red kerchief on her head and a basket on her arm, bringing up the rear.\r\n\r\nRobert knew the girl, and he talked to her a little in the boat. No one present understood what they said. Her name was Mariequita. She had a round, sly, piquant face and pretty black eyes. Her hands were small, and she kept them folded over the handle of her basket. Her feet were broad and coarse. She did not strive to hide them. Edna looked at her feet, and noticed the sand and slime between her brown toes.\r\n\r\nBeaudelet grumbled because Mariequita was there, taking up so much room. In reality he was annoyed at having old Monsieur Farival, who considered himself the better sailor of the two. But he would not quarrel with so old a man as Monsieur Farival, so he quarreled with Mariequita. The girl was deprecatory at one moment, appealing to Robert. She was saucy the next, moving her head up and down, making \u201ceyes\u201d at Robert and making \u201cmouths\u201d at Beaudelet.\r\n\r\nThe lovers were all alone. They saw nothing, they heard nothing. The lady in black was counting her beads for the third time. Old Monsieur Farival talked incessantly of what he knew about handling a boat, and of what Beaudelet did not know on the same subject.\r\n\r\nEdna liked it all. She looked Mariequita up and down, from her ugly brown toes to her pretty black eyes, and back again.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy does she look at me like that?\u201d inquired the girl of Robert.\r\n\r\n\u201cMaybe she thinks you are pretty. Shall I ask her?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo. Is she your sweetheart?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cShe's a married lady, and has two children.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! well! Francisco ran away with Sylvano's wife, who had four children. They took all his money and one of the children and stole his boat.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cShut up!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDoes she understand?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, hush!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAre those two married over there\u2014leaning on each other?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOf course not,\u201d laughed Robert.\r\n\r\n\u201cOf course not,\u201d echoed Mariequita, with a serious, confirmatory bob of the head.\r\n\r\nThe sun was high up and beginning to bite. The swift breeze seemed to Edna to bury the sting of it into the pores of her face and hands. Robert held his umbrella over her. As they went cutting sidewise through the water, the sails bellied taut, with the wind filling and overflowing them. Old Monsieur Farival laughed sardonically at something as he looked at the sails, and Beaudelet swore at the old man under his breath.\r\n\r\nSailing across the bay to the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re Caminada<\/em>, Edna felt as if she were being borne away from some anchorage which had held her fast, whose chains had been loosening\u2014had snapped the night before when the mystic spirit was abroad, leaving her free to drift whithersoever she chose to set her sails. Robert spoke to her incessantly; he no longer noticed Mariequita. The girl had shrimps in her bamboo basket. They were covered with Spanish moss. She beat the moss down impatiently, and muttered to herself sullenly.\r\n\r\n\u201cLet us go to Grande Terre[footnote]An island in the Gulf of Mexico near Grand Isle.[\/footnote] to-morrow?\u201d said Robert in a low voice.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat shall we do there?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cClimb up the hill to the old fort and look at the little wriggling gold snakes, and watch the lizards sun themselves.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe gazed away toward Grande Terre and thought she would like to be alone there with Robert, in the sun, listening to the ocean's roar and watching the slimy lizards writhe in and out among the ruins of the old fort.\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd the next day or the next we can sail to the Bayou Brulow[footnote]A village near Grand Isle built on stilts, in the marshlands or bayoux of the Gulf Coast.[\/footnote],\u201d he went on.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat shall we do there?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAnything\u2014cast bait for fish.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; we'll go back to Grande Terre. Let the fish alone.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWe'll go wherever you like,\u201d he said. \u201cI'll have Tonie come over and help me patch and trim my boat. We shall not need Beaudelet nor any one. Are you afraid of the pirogue[footnote]Canoe.[\/footnote]?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, no.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThen I'll take you some night in the pirogue when the moon shines. Maybe your Gulf spirit will whisper to you in which of these islands the treasures are hidden\u2014direct you to the very spot, perhaps.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd in a day we should be rich!\u201d she laughed. \u201cI'd give it all to you, the pirate gold and every bit of treasure we could dig up. I think you would know how to spend it. Pirate gold isn't a thing to be hoarded or utilized. It is something to squander and throw to the four winds, for the fun of seeing the golden specks fly.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWe'd share it, and scatter it together,\u201d he said. His face flushed.\r\n\r\nThey all went together up to the quaint little Gothic church of Our Lady of Lourdes, gleaming all brown and yellow with paint in the sun's glare.\r\n\r\nOnly Beaudelet remained behind, tinkering at his boat, and Mariequita walked away with her basket of shrimps, casting a look of childish ill humor and reproach at Robert from the corner of her eye.\r\n
                        \r\n

                        Chapter XII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                        \r\n
                          \r\n \t
                        1. How does Edna\u2019s interaction with Robert change in this chapter?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                          Chapter XIII<\/h1>\r\nA feeling of oppression and drowsiness overcame Edna during the service. Her head began to ache, and the lights on the altar swayed before her eyes. Another time she might have made an effort to regain her composure; but her one thought was to quit the stifling atmosphere of the church and reach the open air. She arose, climbing over Robert's feet with a muttered apology. Old Monsieur Farival, flurried, curious, stood up, but upon seeing that Robert had followed Mrs. Pontellier, he sank back into his seat. He whispered an anxious inquiry of the lady in black, who did not notice him or reply, but kept her eyes fastened upon the pages of her velvet prayer-book.\r\n\r\n\u201cI felt giddy and almost overcome,\u201d Edna said, lifting her hands instinctively to her head and pushing her straw hat up from her forehead. \u201cI couldn't have stayed through the service.\u201d They were outside in the shadow of the church. Robert was full of solicitude.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was folly to have thought of going in the first place, let alone staying. Come over to Madame Antoine's; you can rest there.\u201d He took her arm and led her away, looking anxiously and continuously down into her face.\r\n\r\nHow still it was, with only the voice of the sea whispering through the reeds that grew in the salt-water pools! The long line of little gray, weather-beaten houses nestled peacefully among the orange trees. It must always have been God's day on that low, drowsy island, Edna thought. They stopped, leaning over a jagged fence made of sea-drift, to ask for water. A youth, a mild-faced Acadian[footnote]A descendant of the French-Canadians who were expelled from Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1755 and who emigrated to Louisiana.[\/footnote], was drawing water from the cistern, which was nothing more than a rusty buoy, with an opening on one side, sunk in the ground. The water which the youth handed to them in a tin pail was not cold to taste, but it was cool to her heated face, and it greatly revived and refreshed her.\r\n\r\nMadame Antoine's cot[footnote]Cottage.[\/footnote] was at the far end of the village. She welcomed them with all the native hospitality, as she would have opened her door to let the sunlight in. She was fat, and walked heavily and clumsily across the floor. She could speak no English, but when Robert made her understand that the lady who accompanied him was ill and desired to rest, she was all eagerness to make Edna feel at home and to dispose of her comfortably.\r\n\r\nThe whole place was immaculately clean, and the big, four-posted bed, snow-white, invited one to repose. It stood in a small side room which looked out across a narrow grass plot toward the shed, where there was a disabled boat lying keel upward.\r\n\r\nMadame Antoine had not gone to mass. Her son Tonie had, but she supposed he would soon be back, and she invited Robert to be seated and wait for him. But he went and sat outside the door and smoked. Madame Antoine busied herself in the large front room preparing dinner. She was boiling mullets over a few red coals in the huge fireplace.\r\n\r\nEdna, left alone in the little side room, loosened her clothes, removing the greater part of them. She bathed her face, her neck and arms in the basin that stood between the windows. She took off her shoes and stockings and stretched herself in the very center of the high, white bed. How luxurious it felt to rest thus in a strange, quaint bed, with its sweet country odor of laurel lingering about the sheets and mattress! She stretched her strong limbs that ached a little. She ran her fingers through her loosened hair for a while. She looked at her round arms as she held them straight up and rubbed them one after the other, observing closely, as if it were something she saw for the first time, the fine, firm quality and texture of her flesh. She clasped her hands easily above her head, and it was thus she fell asleep.\r\n\r\nShe slept lightly at first, half awake and drowsily attentive to the things about her. She could hear Madame Antoine's heavy, scraping tread as she walked back and forth on the sanded floor. Some chickens were clucking outside the windows, scratching for bits of gravel in the grass. Later she half heard the voices of Robert and Tonie talking under the shed. She did not stir. Even her eyelids rested numb and heavily over her sleepy eyes. The voices went on\u2014Tonie's slow, Acadian drawl, Robert's quick, soft, smooth French. She understood French imperfectly unless directly addressed, and the voices were only part of the other drowsy, muffled sounds lulling her senses.\r\n\r\nWhen Edna awoke it was with the conviction that she had slept long and soundly. The voices were hushed under the shed. Madame Antoine's step was no longer to be heard in the adjoining room. Even the chickens had gone elsewhere to scratch and cluck. The mosquito bar was drawn over her; the old woman had come in while she slept and let down the bar. Edna arose quietly from the bed, and looking between the curtains of the window, she saw by the slanting rays of the sun that the afternoon was far advanced. Robert was out there under the shed, reclining in the shade against the sloping keel of the overturned boat. He was reading from a book. Tonie was no longer with him. She wondered what had become of the rest of the party. She peeped out at him two or three times as she stood washing herself in the little basin between the windows.\r\n\r\nMadame Antoine had laid some coarse, clean towels upon a chair, and had placed a box of poudre de riz[footnote](French) Face powder.[\/footnote]<\/em> within easy reach. Edna dabbed the powder upon her nose and cheeks as she looked at herself closely in the little distorted mirror which hung on the wall above the basin. Her eyes were bright and wide awake and her face glowed.\r\n\r\nWhen she had completed her toilet she walked into the adjoining room. She was very hungry. No one was there. But there was a cloth spread upon the table that stood against the wall, and a cover was laid for one, with a crusty brown loaf and a bottle of wine beside the plate. Edna bit a piece from the brown loaf, tearing it with her strong, white teeth. She poured some of the wine into the glass and drank it down. Then she went softly out of doors, and plucking an orange from the low-hanging bough of a tree, threw it at Robert, who did not know she was awake and up.\r\n\r\nAn illumination broke over his whole face when he saw her and joined her under the orange tree.\r\n\r\n\u201cHow many years have I slept?\u201d she inquired. \u201cThe whole island seems changed. A new race of beings must have sprung up, leaving only you and me as past relics. How many ages ago did Madame Antoine and Tonie die? and when did our people from Grand Isle disappear from the earth?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe familiarly adjusted a ruffle upon her shoulder.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou have slept precisely one hundred years. I was left here to guard your slumbers; and for one hundred years I have been out under the shed reading a book. The only evil I couldn't prevent was to keep a broiled fowl from drying up.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIf it has turned to stone, still will I eat it,\u201d said Edna, moving with him into the house. \u201cBut really, what has become of Monsieur Farival and the others?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cGone hours ago. When they found that you were sleeping they thought it best not to awake you. Any way, I wouldn't have let them. What was I here for?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI wonder if L\u00e9once will be uneasy!\u201d she speculated, as she seated herself at table.\r\n\r\n\u201cOf course not; he knows you are with me,\u201d Robert replied, as he busied himself among sundry pans and covered dishes which had been left standing on the hearth.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere are Madame Antoine and her son?\u201d asked Edna.\r\n\r\n\u201cGone to Vespers[footnote]An evening church service.[\/footnote], and to visit some friends, I believe. I am to take you back in Tonie's boat whenever you are ready to go.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe stirred the smoldering ashes till the broiled fowl began to sizzle afresh. He served her with no mean repast, dripping the coffee anew and sharing it with her. Madame Antoine had cooked little else than the mullets, but while Edna slept Robert had foraged the island. He was childishly gratified to discover her appetite, and to see the relish with which she ate the food which he had procured for her.\r\n\r\n\u201cShall we go right away?\u201d she asked, after draining her glass and brushing together the crumbs of the crusty loaf.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe sun isn't as low as it will be in two hours,\u201d he answered.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe sun will be gone in two hours.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, let it go; who cares!\u201d\r\n\r\nThey waited a good while under the orange trees, till Madame Antoine came back, panting, waddling, with a thousand apologies to explain her absence. Tonie did not dare to return. He was shy, and would not willingly face any woman except his mother.\r\n\r\nIt was very pleasant to stay there under the orange trees, while the sun dipped lower and lower, turning the western sky to flaming copper and gold. The shadows lengthened and crept out like stealthy, grotesque monsters across the grass.\r\n\r\nEdna and Robert both sat upon the ground\u2014that is, he lay upon the ground beside her, occasionally picking at the hem of her muslin gown.\r\n\r\nMadame Antoine seated her fat body, broad and squat, upon a bench beside the door. She had been talking all the afternoon, and had wound herself up to the storytelling pitch.\r\n\r\nAnd what stories she told them! But twice in her life she had left the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re Caminada<\/em>, and then for the briefest span. All her years she had squatted and waddled there upon the island, gathering legends of the Baratarians[footnote]Pirates and smugglers.[\/footnote] and the sea. The night came on, with the moon to lighten it. Edna could hear the whispering voices of dead men and the click of muffled gold.\r\n\r\nWhen she and Robert stepped into Tonie's boat, with the red lateen sail, misty spirit forms were prowling in the shadows and among the reeds, and upon the water were phantom ships, speeding to cover.\r\n
                          \r\n

                          Chapter XIII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                          \r\n
                            \r\n \t
                          1. What happens to Edna when she is at Madame Antoine\u2019s house? How does her behaviour develop the theme of awakening?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                            Chapter XIV<\/h1>\r\nThe youngest boy, Etienne, had been very naughty, Madame Ratignolle said, as she delivered him into the hands of his mother. He had been unwilling to go to bed and had made a scene; whereupon she had taken charge of him and pacified him as well as she could. Raoul had been in bed and asleep for two hours.\r\n\r\nThe youngster was in his long white nightgown, that kept tripping him up as Madame Ratignolle led him along by the hand. With the other chubby fist he rubbed his eyes, which were heavy with sleep and ill humor. Edna took him in her arms, and seating herself in the rocker, began to coddle and caress him, calling him all manner of tender names, soothing him to sleep.\r\n\r\nIt was not more than nine o'clock. No one had yet gone to bed but the children.\r\n\r\nL\u00e9once had been very uneasy at first, Madame Ratignolle said, and had wanted to start at once for the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re<\/em>. But Monsieur Farival had assured him that his wife was only overcome with sleep and fatigue, that Tonie would bring her safely back later in the day; and he had thus been dissuaded from crossing the bay. He had gone over to Klein's, looking up some cotton broker whom he wished to see in regard to securities, exchanges, stocks, bonds, or something of the sort, Madame Ratignolle did not remember what. He said he would not remain away late. She herself was suffering from heat and oppression, she said. She carried a bottle of salts and a large fan. She would not consent to remain with Edna, for Monsieur Ratignolle was alone, and he detested above all things to be left alone.\r\n\r\nWhen Etienne had fallen asleep Edna bore him into the back room, and Robert went and lifted the mosquito bar that she might lay the child comfortably in his bed. The quadroon had vanished. When they emerged from the cottage Robert bade Edna good-night.\r\n\r\n\u201cDo you know we have been together the whole livelong day, Robert\u2014since early this morning?\u201d she said at parting.\r\n\r\n\u201cAll but the hundred years when you were sleeping. Goodnight.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe pressed her hand and went away in the direction of the beach. He did not join any of the others, but walked alone toward the Gulf.\r\n\r\nEdna stayed outside, awaiting her husband's return. She had no desire to sleep or to retire; nor did she feel like going over to sit with the Ratignolles, or to join Madame Lebrun and a group whose animated voices reached her as they sat in conversation before the house. She let her mind wander back over her stay at Grand Isle; and she tried to discover wherein this summer had been different from any and every other summer of her life. She could only realize that she herself\u2014her present self\u2014was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored and changed her environment, she did not yet suspect.\r\n\r\nShe wondered why Robert had gone away and left her. It did not occur to her to think he might have grown tired of being with her the livelong day. She was not tired, and she felt that he was not. She regretted that he had gone. It was so much more natural to have him stay when he was not absolutely required to leave her.\r\n\r\nAs Edna waited for her husband she sang low a little song that Robert had sung as they crossed the bay. It began with \u201cAh! Si tu savais<\/em>,[footnote](French) A romantic song by Michael Balfe (1808-1870), \u201cCould\u2019st thou but know\u201d.[\/footnote]\u201d and every verse ended with \u201csi tu savais<\/em>.\u201d\r\n\r\nRobert's voice was not pretentious. It was musical and true. The voice, the notes, the whole refrain haunted her memory.\r\n
                            \r\n

                            Chapter XIV Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                            \r\n
                              \r\n \t
                            1. How does L\u00e9once react to his wife\u2019s lengthy absence?<\/li>\r\n \t
                            2. Why does L\u00e9once go to Klein\u2019s hotel rather than seek out his wife? Explain the significance of Robert\u2019s description of Edna\u2019s sleeping that day at Madame Antoine\u2019s as having lasted \u201ca hundred years.\u201d<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                              Chapter XV<\/h1>\r\nWhen Edna entered the dining-room one evening a little late, as was her habit, an unusually animated conversation seemed to be going on. Several persons were talking at once, and Victor's voice was predominating, even over that of his mother. Edna had returned late from her bath, had dressed in some haste, and her face was flushed. Her head, set off by her dainty white gown, suggested a rich, rare blossom. She took her seat at table between old Monsieur Farival and Madame Ratignolle.\r\n\r\nAs she seated herself and was about to begin to eat her soup, which had been served when she entered the room, several persons informed her simultaneously that Robert was going to Mexico. She laid her spoon down and looked about her bewildered. He had been with her, reading to her all the morning, and had never even mentioned such a place as Mexico. She had not seen him during the afternoon; she had heard someone say he was at the house, upstairs with his mother. This she had thought nothing of, though she was surprised when he did not join her later in the afternoon, when she went down to the beach.\r\n\r\nShe looked across at him, where he sat beside Madame Lebrun, who presided. Edna's face was a blank picture of bewilderment, which she never thought of disguising. He lifted his eyebrows with the pretext of a smile as he returned her glance. He looked embarrassed and uneasy. \u201cWhen is he going?\u201d she asked of everybody in general, as if Robert were not there to answer for himself.\r\n\r\n\u201cTo-night!\u201d \u201cThis very evening!\u201d \u201cDid you ever!\u201d \u201cWhat possesses him!\u201d were some of the replies she gathered, uttered simultaneously in French and English.\r\n\r\n\u201cImpossible!\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cHow can a person start off from Grand Isle to Mexico at a moment's notice, as if he were going over to Klein's or to the wharf or down to the beach?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI said all along I was going to Mexico; I've been saying so for years!\u201d cried Robert, in an excited and irritable tone, with the air of a man defending himself against a swarm of stinging insects.\r\n\r\nMadame Lebrun knocked on the table with her knife handle.\r\n\r\n\u201cPlease let Robert explain why he is going, and why he is going to-night,\u201d she called out. \u201cReally, this table is getting to be more and more like Bedlam[footnote]A London lunatic asylum.[\/footnote] every day, with everybody talking at once. Sometimes\u2014I hope God will forgive me\u2014but positively, sometimes I wish Victor would lose the power of speech.\u201d\r\n\r\nVictor laughed sardonically as he thanked his mother for her holy wish, of which he failed to see the benefit to anybody, except that it might afford her a more ample opportunity and license to talk herself.\r\n\r\nMonsieur Farival thought that Victor should have been taken out in mid-ocean in his earliest youth and drowned. Victor thought there would be more logic in thus disposing of old people with an established claim for making themselves universally obnoxious. Madame Lebrun grew a trifle hysterical; Robert called his brother some sharp, hard names.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere's nothing much to explain, mother,\u201d he said; though he explained, nevertheless\u2014looking chiefly at Edna\u2014that he could only meet the gentleman whom he intended to join at Vera Cruz by taking such and such a steamer, which left New Orleans on such a day; that Beaudelet was going out with his lugger-load of vegetables that night, which gave him an opportunity of reaching the city and making his vessel in time.\r\n\r\n\u201cBut when did you make up your mind to all this?\u201d demanded Monsieur Farival.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis afternoon,\u201d returned Robert, with a shade of annoyance.\r\n\r\n\u201cAt what time this afternoon?\u201d persisted the old gentleman, with nagging determination, as if he were cross-questioning a criminal in a court of justice.\r\n\r\n\u201cAt four o'clock this afternoon, Monsieur Farival,\u201d Robert replied, in a high voice and with a lofty air, which reminded Edna of some gentleman on the stage.\r\n\r\nShe had forced herself to eat most of her soup, and now she was picking the flaky bits of a court bouillon[footnote]A broth used for poaching fish.[\/footnote]<\/em> with her fork.\r\n\r\nThe lovers were profiting by the general conversation on Mexico to speak in whispers of matters which they rightly considered were interesting to no one but themselves. The lady in black had once received a pair of prayer-beads of curious workmanship from Mexico, with very special indulgence[footnote]In the Roman Catholic faith, a pardon or remission of punishment due for sins.[\/footnote] attached to them, but she had never been able to ascertain whether the indulgence extended outside the Mexican border. Father Fochel of the Cathedral had attempted to explain it; but he had not done so to her satisfaction. And she begged that Robert would interest himself, and discover, if possible, whether she was entitled to the indulgence accompanying the remarkably curious Mexican prayer-beads.\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle hoped that Robert would exercise extreme caution in dealing with the Mexicans, who, she considered, were a treacherous people, unscrupulous and revengeful. She trusted she did them no injustice in thus condemning them as a race. She had known personally but one Mexican, who made and sold excellent tamales, and whom she would have trusted implicitly, so soft-spoken was he. One day he was arrested for stabbing his wife. She never knew whether he had been hanged or not.\r\n\r\nVictor had grown hilarious, and was attempting to tell an anecdote about a Mexican girl who served chocolate one winter in a restaurant in Dauphine Street. No one would listen to him but old Monsieur Farival, who went into convulsions over the droll story.\r\n\r\nEdna wondered if they had all gone mad, to be talking and clamoring at that rate. She herself could think of nothing to say about Mexico or the Mexicans.\r\n\r\n\u201cAt what time do you leave?\u201d she asked Robert.\r\n\r\n\u201cAt ten,\u201d he told her. \u201cBeaudelet wants to wait for the moon.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAre you all ready to go?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cQuite ready. I shall only take a hand-bag, and shall pack my trunk in the city.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe turned to answer some question put to him by his mother, and Edna, having finished her black coffee, left the table.\r\n\r\nShe went directly to her room. The little cottage was close and stuffy after leaving the outer air. But she did not mind; there appeared to be a hundred different things demanding her attention indoors. She began to set the toilet-stand to rights, grumbling at the negligence of the quadroon, who was in the adjoining room putting the children to bed. She gathered together stray garments that were hanging on the backs of chairs, and put each where it belonged in closet or bureau drawer. She changed her gown for a more comfortable and commodious wrapper. She rearranged her hair, combing and brushing it with unusual energy. Then she went in and assisted the quadroon in getting the boys to bed.\r\n\r\nThey were very playful and inclined to talk\u2014to do anything but lie quiet and go to sleep. Edna sent the quadroon away to her supper and told her she need not return. Then she sat and told the children a story. Instead of soothing it excited them, and added to their wakefulness. She left them in heated argument, speculating about the conclusion of the tale which their mother promised to finish the following night.\r\n\r\nThe little black girl came in to say that Madame Lebrun would like to have Mrs. Pontellier go and sit with them over at the house till Mr. Robert went away. Edna returned answer that she had already undressed, that she did not feel quite well, but perhaps she would go over to the house later. She started to dress again, and got as far advanced as to remove her peignoir<\/em>. But changing her mind once more she resumed the peignoir<\/em>, and went outside and sat down before her door. She was overheated and irritable, and fanned herself energetically for a while. Madame Ratignolle came down to discover what was the matter.\r\n\r\n\u201cAll that noise and confusion at the table must have upset me,\u201d replied Edna, \u201cand moreover, I hate shocks and surprises. The idea of Robert starting off in such a ridiculously sudden and dramatic way! As if it were a matter of life and death! Never saying a word about it all morning when he was with me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes,\u201d agreed Madame Ratignolle. \u201cI think it was showing us all\u2014you especially\u2014very little consideration. It wouldn't have surprised me in any of the others; those Lebruns are all given to heroics. But I must say I should never have expected such a thing from Robert. Are you not coming down? Come on, dear; it doesn't look friendly.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo,\u201d said Edna, a little sullenly. \u201cI can't go to the trouble of dressing again; I don't feel like it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou needn't dress; you look all right; fasten a belt around your waist. Just look at me!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo,\u201d persisted Edna; \u201cbut you go on. Madame Lebrun might be offended if we both stayed away.\u201d\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle kissed Edna good-night, and went away, being in truth rather desirous of joining in the general and animated conversation which was still in progress concerning Mexico and the Mexicans.\r\n\r\nSomewhat later Robert came up, carrying his hand-bag.\r\n\r\n\u201cAren't you feeling well?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, well enough. Are you going right away?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe lit a match and looked at his watch. \u201cIn twenty minutes,\u201d he said. The sudden and brief flare of the match emphasized the darkness for a while. He sat down upon a stool which the children had left out on the porch.\r\n\r\n\u201cGet a chair,\u201d said Edna.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis will do,\u201d he replied. He put on his soft hat and nervously took it off again, and wiping his face with his handkerchief, complained of the heat.\r\n\r\n\u201cTake the fan,\u201d said Edna, offering it to him.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, no! Thank you. It does no good; you have to stop fanning some time, and feel all the more uncomfortable afterward.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThat's one of the ridiculous things which men always say. I have never known one to speak otherwise of fanning. How long will you be gone?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cForever, perhaps. I don't know. It depends upon a good many things.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, in case it shouldn't be forever, how long will it be?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI don't know.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThis seems to me perfectly preposterous and uncalled for. I don't like it. I don't understand your motive for silence and mystery, never saying a word to me about it this morning.\u201d He remained silent, not offering to defend himself. He only said, after a moment:\r\n\r\n\u201cDon't part from me in any ill humor. I never knew you to be out of patience with me before.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI don't want to part in any ill humor,\u201d she said. \u201cBut can't you understand? I've grown used to seeing you, to having you with me all the time, and your action seems unfriendly, even unkind. You don't even offer an excuse for it. Why, I was planning to be together, thinking of how pleasant it would be to see you in the city next winter.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cSo was I,\u201d he blurted. \u201cPerhaps that's the\u2014\u201d He stood up suddenly and held out his hand. \u201cGood-bye, my dear Mrs. Pontellier; good-bye. You won't\u2014I hope you won't completely forget me.\u201d She clung to his hand, striving to detain him.\r\n\r\n\u201cWrite to me when you get there, won't you, Robert?\u201d she entreated.\r\n\r\n\u201cI will, thank you. Good-bye.\u201d\r\n\r\nHow unlike Robert! The merest acquaintance would have said something more emphatic than \u201cI will, thank you; good-bye,\u201d to such a request.\r\n\r\nHe had evidently already taken leave of the people over at the house, for he descended the steps and went to join Beaudelet, who was out there with an oar across his shoulder waiting for Robert. They walked away in the darkness. She could only hear Beaudelet's voice; Robert had apparently not even spoken a word of greeting to his companion.\r\n\r\nEdna bit her handkerchief convulsively, striving to hold back and to hide, even from herself as she would have hidden from another, the emotion which was troubling\u2014tearing\u2014her. Her eyes were brimming with tears.\r\n\r\nFor the first time she recognized the symptoms of infatuation which she had felt incipiently as a child, as a girl in her earliest teens, and later as a young woman. The recognition did not lessen the reality, the poignancy of the revelation by any suggestion or promise of instability. The past was nothing to her; offered no lesson which she was willing to heed. The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant; was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting conviction that she had lost that which she had held, that she had been denied that which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded.\r\n
                              \r\n

                              Chapter XV Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                              \r\n
                                \r\n \t
                              1. Is there another reason other than following up a business opportunity why Robert suddenly decides to leave for Mexico?<\/li>\r\n \t
                              2. How does Edna react to the news of his departure?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                Chapter XVI<\/h1>\r\n\u201cDo you miss your friend greatly?\u201d asked Mademoiselle Reisz one morning as she came creeping up behind Edna, who had just left her cottage on her way to the beach. She spent much of her time in the water since she had acquired finally the art of swimming. As their stay at Grand Isle drew near its close, she felt that she could not give too much time to a diversion which afforded her the only real pleasurable moments that she knew. When Mademoiselle Reisz came and touched her upon the shoulder and spoke to her, the woman seemed to echo the thought which was ever in Edna's mind; or, better, the feeling which constantly possessed her.\r\n\r\nRobert's going had some way taken the brightness, the color, the meaning out of everything. The conditions of her life were in no way changed, but her whole existence was dulled, like a faded garment which seems to be no longer worth wearing. She sought him everywhere\u2014in others whom she induced to talk about him. She went up in the mornings to Madame Lebrun's room, braving the clatter of the old sewing-machine. She sat there and chatted at intervals as Robert had done. She gazed around the room at the pictures and photographs hanging upon the wall, and discovered in some corner an old family album, which she examined with the keenest interest, appealing to Madame Lebrun for enlightenment concerning the many figures and faces which she discovered between its pages.\r\n\r\nThere was a picture of Madame Lebrun with Robert as a baby, seated in her lap, a round-faced infant with a fist in his mouth. The eyes alone in the baby suggested the man. And that was he also in kilts, at the age of five, wearing long curls and holding a whip in his hand. It made Edna laugh, and she laughed, too, at the portrait in his first long trousers; while another interested her, taken when he left for college, looking thin, long-faced, with eyes full of fire, ambition and great intentions. But there was no recent picture, none which suggested the Robert who had gone away five days ago, leaving a void and wilderness behind him.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, Robert stopped having his pictures taken when he had to pay for them himself! He found wiser use for his money, he says,\u201d explained Madame Lebrun. She had a letter from him, written before he left New Orleans. Edna wished to see the letter, and Madame Lebrun told her to look for it either on the table or the dresser, or perhaps it was on the mantelpiece.\r\n\r\nThe letter was on the bookshelf. It possessed the greatest interest and attraction for Edna; the envelope, its size and shape, the post-mark, the handwriting. She examined every detail of the outside before opening it. There were only a few lines, setting forth that he would leave the city that afternoon, that he had packed his trunk in good shape, that he was well, and sent her his love and begged to be affectionately remembered to all. There was no special message to Edna except a postscript saying that if Mrs. Pontellier desired to finish the book which he had been reading to her, his mother would find it in his room, among other books there on the table. Edna experienced a pang of jealousy because he had written to his mother rather than to her.\r\n\r\nEveryone seemed to take for granted that she missed him. Even her husband, when he came down the Saturday following Robert's departure, expressed regret that he had gone.\r\n\r\n\u201cHow do you get on without him, Edna?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt's very dull without him,\u201d she admitted. Mr. Pontellier had seen Robert in the city, and Edna asked him a dozen questions or more. Where had they met? On Carondelet Street, in the morning. They had gone \u201cin\u201d and had a drink and a cigar together. What had they talked about? Chiefly about his prospects in Mexico, which Mr. Pontellier thought were promising. How did he look? How did he seem\u2014grave, or gay, or how? Quite cheerful, and wholly taken up with the idea of his trip, which Mr. Pontellier found altogether natural in a young fellow about to seek fortune and adventure in a strange, queer country.\r\n\r\nEdna tapped her foot impatiently, and wondered why the children persisted in playing in the sun when they might be under the trees. She went down and led them out of the sun, scolding the quadroon for not being more attentive.\r\n\r\nIt did not strike her as in the least grotesque that she should be making of Robert the object of conversation and leading her husband to speak of him. The sentiment which she entertained for Robert in no way resembled that which she felt for her husband, or had ever felt, or ever expected to feel. She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own, and she entertained the conviction that she had a right to them and that they concerned no one but herself. Edna had once told Madame Ratignolle that she would never sacrifice herself for her children, or for any one. Then had followed a rather heated argument; the two women did not appear to understand each other or to be talking the same language. Edna tried to appease her friend, to explain.\r\n\r\n\u201cI would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI don't know what you would call the essential, or what you mean by the unessential,\u201d said Madame Ratignolle, cheerfully; \u201cbut a woman who would give her life for her children could do no more than that\u2014your Bible tells you so. I'm sure I couldn't do more than that.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, yes you could!\u201d laughed Edna.\r\n\r\nShe was not surprised at Mademoiselle Reisz's question the morning that lady, following her to the beach, tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she did not greatly miss her young friend.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, good morning, Mademoiselle; is it you? Why, of course I miss Robert. Are you going down to bathe?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy should I go down to bathe at the very end of the season when I haven't been in the surf all summer,\u201d replied the woman, disagreeably.\r\n\r\n\u201cI beg your pardon,\u201d offered Edna, in some embarrassment, for she should have remembered that Mademoiselle Reisz's avoidance of the water had furnished a theme for much pleasantry. Some among them thought it was on account of her false hair, or the dread of getting the violets wet, while others attributed it to the natural aversion for water sometimes believed to accompany the artistic temperament. Mademoiselle offered Edna some chocolates in a paper bag, which she took from her pocket, by way of showing that she bore no ill feeling. She habitually ate chocolates for their sustaining quality; they contained much nutriment in small compass, she said. They saved her from starvation, as Madame Lebrun's table was utterly impossible; and no one save so impertinent a woman as Madame Lebrun could think of offering such food to people and requiring them to pay for it.\r\n\r\n\u201cShe must feel very lonely without her son,\u201d said Edna, desiring to change the subject. \u201cHer favorite son, too. It must have been quite hard to let him go.\u201d\r\n\r\nMademoiselle laughed maliciously.\r\n\r\n\u201cHer favorite son! Oh, dear! Who could have been imposing such a tale upon you? Aline Lebrun lives for Victor, and for Victor alone. She has spoiled him into the worthless creature he is. She worships him and the ground he walks on. Robert is very well in a way, to give up all the money he can earn to the family, and keep the barest pittance for himself. Favorite son, indeed! I miss the poor fellow myself, my dear. I liked to see him and to hear him about the place the only Lebrun who is worth a pinch of salt. He comes to see me often in the city. I like to play to him. That Victor! hanging would be too good for him. It's a wonder Robert hasn't beaten him to death long ago.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI thought he had great patience with his brother,\u201d offered Edna, glad to be talking about Robert, no matter what was said.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! he thrashed him well enough a year or two ago,\u201d said Mademoiselle. \u201cIt was about a Spanish girl, whom Victor considered that he had some sort of claim upon. He met Robert one day talking to the girl, or walking with her, or bathing with her, or carrying her basket\u2014I don't remember what;\u2014and he became so insulting and abusive that Robert gave him a thrashing on the spot that has kept him comparatively in order for a good while. It's about time he was getting another.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWas her name Mariequita?\u201d asked Edna.\r\n\r\n\u201cMariequita\u2014yes, that was it; Mariequita. I had forgotten. Oh, she's a sly one, and a bad one, that Mariequita!\u201d\r\n\r\nEdna looked down at Mademoiselle Reisz and wondered how she could have listened to her venom so long. For some reason she felt depressed, almost unhappy. She had not intended to go into the water; but she donned her bathing suit, and left Mademoiselle alone, seated under the shade of the children's tent. The water was growing cooler as the season advanced. Edna plunged and swam about with an abandon that thrilled and invigorated her. She remained a long time in the water, half hoping that Mademoiselle Reisz would not wait for her.\r\n\r\nBut Mademoiselle waited. She was very amiable during the walk back, and raved much over Edna's appearance in her bathing suit. She talked about music. She hoped that Edna would go to see her in the city, and wrote her address with the stub of a pencil on a piece of card which she found in her pocket.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen do you leave?\u201d asked Edna.\r\n\r\n\u201cNext Monday; and you?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThe following week,\u201d answered Edna, adding, \u201cIt has been a pleasant summer, hasn't it, Mademoiselle?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell,\u201d agreed Mademoiselle Reisz, with a shrug, \u201crather pleasant, if it hadn't been for the mosquitoes and the Farival twins.\u201d\r\n
                                \r\n

                                Chapter XVI Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                \r\n
                                  \r\n \t
                                1. How are Mademoiselle Reisz and Ad\u00e8le Ratignolle foils to Edna?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                2. What is the significance of Edna\u2019s assertion \u201cI would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn\u2019t give myself\u201d?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                  Chapter XVII<\/h1>\r\nThe Pontelliers possessed a very charming home on Esplanade Street[footnote]A fashionable street in New Orleans.[\/footnote] in New Orleans. It was a large, double cottage, with a broad front veranda, whose round, fluted columns supported the sloping roof. The house was painted a dazzling white; the outside shutters, or jalousies, were green. In the yard, which was kept scrupulously neat, were flowers and plants of every description which flourishes in South Louisiana. Within doors the appointments were perfect after the conventional type. The softest carpets and rugs covered the floors; rich and tasteful draperies hung at doors and windows. There were paintings, selected with judgment and discrimination, upon the walls. The cut glass, the silver, the heavy damask which daily appeared upon the table were the envy of many women whose husbands were less generous than Mr. Pontellier.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier was very fond of walking about his house examining its various appointments and details, to see that nothing was amiss. He greatly valued his possessions, chiefly because they were his, and derived genuine pleasure from contemplating a painting, a statuette, a rare lace curtain\u2014no matter what\u2014after he had bought it and placed it among his household gods.\r\n\r\nOn Tuesday afternoons\u2014Tuesday being Mrs. Pontellier's reception day[footnote]Fashionable women received guests at their homes on a specific day of the week, and not to be \u201cat home\u201d on such days would have been viewed as insulting to callers.[\/footnote]\u2014there was a constant stream of callers\u2014women who came in carriages or in the street cars, or walked when the air was soft and distance permitted. A light-colored mulatto boy, in dress coat and bearing a diminutive silver tray for the reception of cards, admitted them. A maid, in white fluted cap, offered the callers liqueur, coffee, or chocolate, as they might desire. Mrs. Pontellier, attired in a handsome reception gown, remained in the drawing-room the entire afternoon receiving her visitors. Men sometimes called in the evening with their wives.\r\n\r\nThis had been the programme which Mrs. Pontellier had religiously followed since her marriage, six years before. Certain evenings during the week she and her husband attended the opera or sometimes the play.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier left his home in the mornings between nine and ten o'clock, and rarely returned before half-past six or seven in the evening\u2014dinner being served at half-past seven.\r\n\r\nHe and his wife seated themselves at table one Tuesday evening, a few weeks after their return from Grand Isle. They were alone together. The boys were being put to bed; the patter of their bare, escaping feet could be heard occasionally, as well as the pursuing voice of the quadroon, lifted in mild protest and entreaty. Mrs. Pontellier did not wear her usual Tuesday reception gown; she was in ordinary house dress. Mr. Pontellier, who was observant about such things, noticed it, as he served the soup and handed it to the boy in waiting.\r\n\r\n\u201cTired out, Edna? Whom did you have? Many callers?\u201d he asked. He tasted his soup and began to season it with pepper, salt, vinegar, mustard\u2014everything within reach.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere were a good many,\u201d replied Edna, who was eating her soup with evident satisfaction. \u201cI found their cards when I got home; I was out.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOut!\u201d exclaimed her husband, with something like genuine consternation in his voice as he laid down the vinegar cruet and looked at her through his glasses. \u201cWhy, what could have taken you out on Tuesday? What did you have to do?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNothing. I simply felt like going out, and I went out.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, I hope you left some suitable excuse,\u201d said her husband, somewhat appeased, as he added a dash of cayenne pepper to the soup.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo, I left no excuse. I told Joe to say I was out, that was all.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy, my dear, I should think you'd understand by this time that people don't do such things; we've got to observe les convenances<\/em>[footnote]Social conventions.[\/footnote] if we ever expect to get on and keep up with the procession. If you felt that you had to leave home this afternoon, you should have left some suitable explanation for your absence.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis soup is really impossible; it's strange that woman hasn't learned yet to make a decent soup. Any free-lunch stand in town serves a better one. Was Mrs. Belthrop here?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBring the tray with the cards, Joe. I don't remember who was here.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe boy retired and returned after a moment, bringing the tiny silver tray, which was covered with ladies' visiting cards. He handed it to Mrs. Pontellier.\r\n\r\n\u201cGive it to Mr. Pontellier,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nJoe offered the tray to Mr. Pontellier, and removed the soup.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier scanned the names of his wife's callers, reading some of them aloud, with comments as he read.\r\n\r\n\u201c'The Misses Delasidas.' I worked a big deal in futures[footnote]A stock or bond purchase made with an eye to future profit.[\/footnote] for their father this morning; nice girls; it's time they were getting married. 'Mrs. Belthrop.' I tell you what it is, Edna; you can't afford to snub Mrs. Belthrop. Why, Belthrop could buy and sell us ten times over. His business is worth a good, round sum to me. You'd better write her a note. 'Mrs. James Highcamp.' Hugh! the less you have to do with Mrs. Highcamp, the better. 'Madame Laforce.' Came all the way from Carrolton[footnote]A village to the west of New Orleans; it was later absorbed by the city.[\/footnote], too, poor old soul. 'Miss Wiggs,' 'Mrs. Eleanor Boltons.'\u201d He pushed the cards aside.\r\n\r\n\u201cMercy!\u201d exclaimed Edna, who had been fuming. \u201cWhy are you taking the thing so seriously and making such a fuss over it?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI'm not making any fuss over it. But it's just such seeming trifles that we've got to take seriously; such things count.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe fish was scorched. Mr. Pontellier would not touch it. Edna said she did not mind a little scorched taste. The roast was in some way not to his fancy, and he did not like the manner in which the vegetables were served.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt seems to me,\u201d he said, \u201cwe spend money enough in this house to procure at least one meal a day which a man could eat and retain his self-respect.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou used to think the cook was a treasure,\u201d returned Edna, indifferently.\r\n\r\n\u201cPerhaps she was when she first came; but cooks are only human. They need looking after, like any other class of persons that you employ. Suppose I didn't look after the clerks in my office, just let them run things their own way; they'd soon make a nice mess of me and my business.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere are you going?\u201d asked Edna, seeing that her husband arose from table without having eaten a morsel except a taste of the highly-seasoned soup.\r\n\r\n\u201cI'm going to get my dinner at the club. Good night.\u201d He went into the hall, took his hat and stick from the stand, and left the house.\r\n\r\nShe was somewhat familiar with such scenes. They had often made her very unhappy. On a few previous occasions she had been completely deprived of any desire to finish her dinner. Sometimes she had gone into the kitchen to administer a tardy rebuke to the cook. Once she went to her room and studied the cookbook during an entire evening, finally writing out a menu for the week, which left her harassed with a feeling that, after all, she had accomplished no good that was worth the name.\r\n\r\nBut that evening Edna finished her dinner alone, with forced deliberation. Her face was flushed and her eyes flamed with some inward fire that lighted them. After finishing her dinner she went to her room, having instructed the boy to tell any other callers that she was indisposed.\r\n\r\nIt was a large, beautiful room, rich and picturesque in the soft, dim light which the maid had turned low. She went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of the garden below. All the mystery and witchery of the night seemed to have gathered there amid the perfumes and the dusky and tortuous outlines of flowers and foliage. She was seeking herself and finding herself in just such sweet, half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars. They jeered and sounded mournful notes without promise, devoid even of hope. She turned back into the room and began to walk to and fro down its whole length without stopping, without resting. She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the little glittering circlet.\r\n\r\nIn a sweeping passion she seized a glass vase from the table and flung it upon the tiles of the hearth. She wanted to destroy something. The crash and clatter were what she wanted to hear.\r\n\r\nA maid, alarmed at the din of breaking glass, entered the room to discover what was the matter.\r\n\r\n\u201cA vase fell upon the hearth,\u201d said Edna. \u201cNever mind; leave it till morning.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! you might get some of the glass in your feet, ma'am,\u201d insisted the young woman, picking up bits of the broken vase that were scattered upon the carpet. \u201cAnd here's your ring, ma'am, under the chair.\u201d\r\n\r\nEdna held out her hand, and taking the ring, slipped it upon her finger.\r\n
                                  \r\n

                                  Chapter XVII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                  \r\n
                                    \r\n \t
                                  1. Now that the Pontelliers are back in New Orleans, how does Edna rebel against social convention? What does she refuse to continue doing, and how does L\u00e9once react?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                    Chapter XVIII<\/h1>\r\nThe following morning Mr. Pontellier, upon leaving for his office, asked Edna if she would not meet him in town in order to look at some new fixtures for the library.\r\n\r\n\u201cI hardly think we need new fixtures, L\u00e9once. Don't let us get anything new; you are too extravagant. I don't believe you ever think of saving or putting by.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThe way to become rich is to make money, my dear Edna, not to save it,\u201d he said. He regretted that she did not feel inclined to go with him and select new fixtures. He kissed her good-bye, and told her she was not looking well and must take care of herself. She was unusually pale and very quiet.\r\n\r\nShe stood on the front veranda as he quitted the house, and absently picked a few sprays of jessamine[footnote]Jasmine.[\/footnote] that grew upon a trellis near by. She inhaled the odor of the blossoms and thrust them into the bosom of her white morning gown. The boys were dragging along the banquette[footnote]Sidewalk.[\/footnote] a small \u201cexpress wagon,\u201d which they had filled with blocks and sticks. The quadroon was following them with little quick steps, having assumed a fictitious animation and alacrity for the occasion. A fruit vender was crying his wares in the street.\r\n\r\nEdna looked straight before her with a self-absorbed expression upon her face. She felt no interest in anything about her. The street, the children, the fruit vender, the flowers growing there under her eyes, were all part and parcel of an alien world which had suddenly become antagonistic.\r\n\r\nShe went back into the house. She had thought of speaking to the cook concerning her blunders of the previous night; but Mr. Pontellier had saved her that disagreeable mission, for which she was so poorly fitted. Mr. Pontellier's arguments were usually convincing with those whom he employed. He left home feeling quite sure that he and Edna would sit down that evening, and possibly a few subsequent evenings, to a dinner deserving of the name.\r\n\r\nEdna spent an hour or two in looking over some of her old sketches. She could see their shortcomings and defects, which were glaring in her eyes. She tried to work a little, but found she was not in the humor. Finally she gathered together a few of the sketches\u2014those which she considered the least discreditable; and she carried them with her when, a little later, she dressed and left the house. She looked handsome and distinguished in her street gown. The tan of the seashore had left her face, and her forehead was smooth, white, and polished beneath her heavy, yellow-brown hair. There were a few freckles on her face, and a small, dark mole near the under lip and one on the temple, half-hidden in her hair.\r\n\r\nAs Edna walked along the street she was thinking of Robert. She was still under the spell of her infatuation. She had tried to forget him, realizing the inutility of remembering. But the thought of him was like an obsession, ever pressing itself upon her. It was not that she dwelt upon details of their acquaintance, or recalled in any special or peculiar way his personality; it was his being, his existence, which dominated her thought, fading sometimes as if it would melt into the mist of the forgotten, reviving again with an intensity which filled her with an incomprehensible longing.\r\n\r\nEdna was on her way to Madame Ratignolle's. Their intimacy, begun at Grand Isle, had not declined, and they had seen each other with some frequency since their return to the city. The Ratignolles lived at no great distance from Edna's home, on the corner of a side street, where Monsieur Ratignolle owned and conducted a drug store which enjoyed a steady and prosperous trade. His father had been in the business before him, and Monsieur Ratignolle stood well in the community and bore an enviable reputation for integrity and clearheadedness. His family lived in commodious apartments over the store, having an entrance on the side within the porte coch\u00e8re<\/em>.[footnote]A covered entrance large enough for vehicles to pass through. The roof protects passengers from the weather.[\/footnote] There was something which Edna thought very French, very foreign, about their whole manner of living. In the large and pleasant salon which extended across the width of the house, the Ratignolles entertained their friends once a fortnight with a soir\u00e9e musicale<\/em>,[footnote]A musical party held in the evening.[\/footnote] sometimes diversified by card-playing. There was a friend who played upon the 'cello. One brought his flute and another his violin, while there were some who sang and a number who performed upon the piano with various degrees of taste and agility. The Ratignolles' soir\u00e9es musicales<\/em> were widely known, and it was considered a privilege to be invited to them.\r\n\r\nEdna found her friend engaged in assorting the clothes which had returned that morning from the laundry. She at once abandoned her occupation upon seeing Edna, who had been ushered without ceremony into her presence.\r\n\r\n\u201c'Cit\u00e9 can do it as well as I; it is really her business,\u201d she explained to Edna, who apologized for interrupting her. And she summoned a young black woman, whom she instructed, in French, to be very careful in checking off the list which she handed her. She told her to notice particularly if a fine linen handkerchief of Monsieur Ratignolle's, which was missing last week, had been returned; and to be sure to set to one side such pieces as required mending and darning.\r\n\r\nThen placing an arm around Edna's waist, she led her to the front of the house, to the salon, where it was cool and sweet with the odor of great roses that stood upon the hearth in jars.\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle looked more beautiful than ever there at home, in a neglig\u00e9e<\/em> which left her arms almost wholly bare and exposed the rich, melting curves of her white throat.\r\n\r\n\u201cPerhaps I shall be able to paint your picture some day,\u201d said Edna with a smile when they were seated. She produced the roll of sketches and started to unfold them. \u201cI believe I ought to work again. I feel as if I wanted to be doing something. What do you think of them? Do you think it worth while to take it up again and study some more? I might study for a while with Laidpore.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe knew that Madame Ratignolle's opinion in such a matter would be next to valueless, that she herself had not alone decided, but determined; but she sought the words of praise and encouragement that would help her to put heart into her venture.\r\n\r\n\u201cYour talent is immense, dear!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNonsense!\u201d protested Edna, well pleased.\r\n\r\n\u201cImmense, I tell you,\u201d persisted Madame Ratignolle, surveying the sketches one by one, at close range, then holding them at arm's length, narrowing her eyes, and dropping her head on one side. \u201cSurely, this Bavarian peasant is worthy of framing; and this basket of apples! never have I seen anything more lifelike. One might almost be tempted to reach out a hand and take one.\u201d\r\n\r\nEdna could not control a feeling which bordered upon complacency at her friend's praise, even realizing, as she did, its true worth. She retained a few of the sketches, and gave all the rest to Madame Ratignolle, who appreciated the gift far beyond its value and proudly exhibited the pictures to her husband when he came up from the store a little later for his midday dinner.\r\n\r\nMr. Ratignolle was one of those men who are called the salt of the earth. His cheerfulness was unbounded, and it was matched by his goodness of heart, his broad charity, and common sense. He and his wife spoke English with an accent which was only discernible through its un-English emphasis and a certain carefulness and deliberation. Edna's husband spoke English with no accent whatever. The Ratignolles understood each other perfectly. If ever the fusion of two human beings into one has been accomplished on this sphere it was surely in their union.\r\n\r\nAs Edna seated herself at table with them she thought, \u201cBetter a dinner of herbs[footnote]See Proverbs 15:17: \u201cBetter is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.\u201d[\/footnote],\u201d though it did not take her long to discover that it was no dinner of herbs, but a delicious repast, simple, choice, and in every way satisfying.\r\n\r\nMonsieur Ratignolle was delighted to see her, though he found her looking not so well as at Grand Isle, and he advised a tonic. He talked a good deal on various topics, a little politics, some city news and neighborhood gossip. He spoke with an animation and earnestness that gave an exaggerated importance to every syllable he uttered. His wife was keenly interested in everything he said, laying down her fork the better to listen, chiming in, taking the words out of his mouth.\r\n\r\nEdna felt depressed rather than soothed after leaving them. The little glimpse of domestic harmony which had been offered her, gave her no regret, no longing. It was not a condition of life which fitted her, and she could see in it but an appalling and hopeless ennui. She was moved by a kind of commiseration for Madame Ratignolle,\u2014a pity for that colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment, in which no moment of anguish ever visited her soul, in which she would never have the taste of life's delirium. Edna vaguely wondered what she meant by \u201clife's delirium.\u201d It had crossed her thought like some unsought, extraneous impression.\r\n
                                    \r\n

                                    Chapter XVIII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                    \r\n
                                      \r\n \t
                                    1. Contrast the marriage of the Ratignolles with that of the Pontelliers.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                      Chapter XIX<\/h1>\r\nEdna could not help but think that it was very foolish, very childish, to have stamped upon her wedding ring and smashed the crystal vase upon the tiles. She was visited by no more outbursts, moving her to such futile expedients. She began to do as she liked and to feel as she liked. She completely abandoned her Tuesdays at home, and did not return the visits of those who had called upon her. She made no ineffectual efforts to conduct her household en bonne menag\u00e8re<\/em>, [footnote]As a good housekeeper.[\/footnote]going and coming as it suited her fancy, and, so far as she was able, lending herself to any passing caprice.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier had been a rather courteous husband so long as he met a certain tacit submissiveness in his wife. But her new and unexpected line of conduct completely bewildered him. It shocked him. Then her absolute disregard for her duties as a wife angered him. When Mr. Pontellier became rude, Edna grew insolent. She had resolved never to take another step backward.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt seems to me the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and the mother of children, to spend in an atelier<\/em>[footnote]Artist\u2019s studio.[\/footnote] days which would be better employed contriving for the comfort of her family.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI feel like painting,\u201d answered Edna. \u201cPerhaps I shan't always feel like it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThen in God's name paint! but don't let the family go to the devil. There's Madame Ratignolle; because she keeps up her music, she doesn't let everything else go to chaos. And she's more of a musician than you are a painter.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cShe isn't a musician, and I'm not a painter. It isn't on account of painting that I let things go.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOn account of what, then?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! I don't know. Let me alone; you bother me.\u201d\r\n\r\nIt sometimes entered Mr. Pontellier's mind to wonder if his wife were not growing a little unbalanced mentally. He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.\r\n\r\nHer husband let her alone as she requested, and went away to his office. Edna went up to her atelier<\/em>\u2014a bright room in the top of the house. She was working with great energy and interest, without accomplishing anything, however, which satisfied her even in the smallest degree. For a time she had the whole household enrolled in the service of art. The boys posed for her. They thought it amusing at first, but the occupation soon lost its attractiveness when they discovered that it was not a game arranged especially for their entertainment. The quadroon sat for hours before Edna's palette, patient as a savage, while the house-maid took charge of the children, and the drawing-room went undusted. But the housemaid, too, served her term as model when Edna perceived that the young woman's back and shoulders were molded on classic lines, and that her hair, loosened from its confining cap, became an inspiration. While Edna worked she sometimes sang low the little air, \u201cAh! si tu savais<\/em>!\u201d\r\n\r\nIt moved her with recollections. She could hear again the ripple of the water, the flapping sail. She could see the glint of the moon upon the bay, and could feel the soft, gusty beating of the hot south wind. A subtle current of desire passed through her body, weakening her hold upon the brushes and making her eyes burn.\r\n\r\nThere were days when she was very happy without knowing why. She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day. She liked then to wander alone into strange and unfamiliar places. She discovered many a sunny, sleepy corner, fashioned to dream in. And she found it good to dream and to be alone and unmolested.\r\n\r\nThere were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why,\u2014when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation. She could not work on such a day, nor weave fancies to stir her pulses and warm her blood.\r\n
                                      \r\n

                                      Chapter XIX Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                      \r\n
                                        \r\n \t
                                      1. Edna neglects her housekeeping and instead takes up painting. What does L\u00e9once think might be wrong with his wife? How is Edna beginning to cast aside her \u201cfictitious self\u201d? What is the significance of Edna\u2019s singing \u201cAh, si tu savais!\u201d<\/em> while painting?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                        Chapter XX<\/h1>\r\nIt was during such a mood that Edna hunted up Mademoiselle Reisz. She had not forgotten the rather disagreeable impression left upon her by their last interview; but she nevertheless felt a desire to see her\u2014above all, to listen while she played upon the piano. Quite early in the afternoon she started upon her quest for the pianist. Unfortunately she had mislaid or lost Mademoiselle Reisz's card, and looking up her address in the city directory, she found that the woman lived on Bienville Street, some distance away. The directory which fell into her hands was a year or more old, however, and upon reaching the number indicated, Edna discovered that the house was occupied by a respectable family of mulattoes who had chambres garnies[footnote](French) Furnished rooms.[\/footnote]<\/em> to let. They had been living there for six months, and knew absolutely nothing of a Mademoiselle Reisz. In fact, they knew nothing of any of their neighbors; their lodgers were all people of the highest distinction, they assured Edna. She did not linger to discuss class distinctions with Madame Pouponne, but hastened to a neighboring grocery store, feeling sure that Mademoiselle would have left her address with the proprietor.\r\n\r\nHe knew Mademoiselle Reisz a good deal better than he wanted to know her, he informed his questioner. In truth, he did not want to know her at all, or anything concerning her\u2014the most disagreeable and unpopular woman who ever lived in Bienville Street. He thanked heaven she had left the neighborhood, and was equally thankful that he did not know where she had gone.\r\n\r\nEdna's desire to see Mademoiselle Reisz had increased tenfold since these unlooked-for obstacles had arisen to thwart it. She was wondering who could give her the information she sought, when it suddenly occurred to her that Madame Lebrun would be the one most likely to do so. She knew it was useless to ask Madame Ratignolle, who was on the most distant terms with the musician, and preferred to know nothing concerning her. She had once been almost as emphatic in expressing herself upon the subject as the corner grocer.\r\n\r\nEdna knew that Madame Lebrun had returned to the city, for it was the middle of November. And she also knew where the Lebruns lived, on Chartres Street.\r\n\r\nTheir home from the outside looked like a prison, with iron bars before the door and lower windows. The iron bars were a relic of the old r\u00e9gime[footnote]The period of Spanish rule (1766-1803) in Louisiana.[\/footnote]<\/em>, and no one had ever thought of dislodging them. At the side was a high fence enclosing the garden. A gate or door opening upon the street was locked. Edna rang the bell at this side garden gate, and stood upon the banquette, waiting to be admitted.\r\n\r\nIt was Victor who opened the gate for her. A black woman, wiping her hands upon her apron, was close at his heels. Before she saw them Edna could hear them in altercation, the woman\u2014plainly an anomaly\u2014claiming the right to be allowed to perform her duties, one of which was to answer the bell.\r\n\r\nVictor was surprised and delighted to see Mrs. Pontellier, and he made no attempt to conceal either his astonishment or his delight. He was a dark-browed, good-looking youngster of nineteen, greatly resembling his mother, but with ten times her impetuosity. He instructed the black woman to go at once and inform Madame Lebrun that Mrs. Pontellier desired to see her. The woman grumbled a refusal to do part of her duty when she had not been permitted to do it all, and started back to her interrupted task of weeding the garden. Whereupon Victor administered a rebuke in the form of a volley of abuse, which, owing to its rapidity and incoherence, was all but incomprehensible to Edna. Whatever it was, the rebuke was convincing, for the woman dropped her hoe and went mumbling into the house.\r\n\r\nEdna did not wish to enter. It was very pleasant there on the side porch, where there were chairs, a wicker lounge, and a small table. She seated herself, for she was tired from her long tramp; and she began to rock gently and smooth out the folds of her silk parasol. Victor drew up his chair beside her. He at once explained that the black woman's offensive conduct was all due to imperfect training, as he was not there to take her in hand. He had only come up from the island the morning before, and expected to return next day. He stayed all winter at the island; he lived there, and kept the place in order and got things ready for the summer visitors.\r\n\r\nBut a man needed occasional relaxation, he informed Mrs. Pontellier, and every now and again he drummed up a pretext to bring him to the city. My! but he had had a time of it the evening before! He wouldn't want his mother to know, and he began to talk in a whisper. He was scintillant with recollections. Of course, he couldn't think of telling Mrs. Pontellier all about it, she being a woman and not comprehending such things. But it all began with a girl peeping and smiling at him through the shutters as he passed by. Oh! but she was a beauty! Certainly he smiled back, and went up and talked to her. Mrs. Pontellier did not know him if she supposed he was one to let an opportunity like that escape him. Despite herself, the youngster amused her. She must have betrayed in her look some degree of interest or entertainment. The boy grew more daring, and Mrs. Pontellier might have found herself, in a little while, listening to a highly colored story but for the timely appearance of Madame Lebrun.\r\n\r\nThat lady was still clad in white, according to her custom of the summer. Her eyes beamed an effusive welcome. Would not Mrs. Pontellier go inside? Would she partake of some refreshment? Why had she not been there before? How was that dear Mr. Pontellier and how were those sweet children? Had Mrs. Pontellier ever known such a warm November?\r\n\r\nVictor went and reclined on the wicker lounge behind his mother's chair, where he commanded a view of Edna's face. He had taken her parasol from her hands while he spoke to her, and he now lifted it and twirled it above him as he lay on his back. When Madame Lebrun complained that it was so dull coming back to the city; that she saw so few people now; that even Victor, when he came up from the island for a day or two, had so much to occupy him and engage his time; then it was that the youth went into contortions on the lounge and winked mischievously at Edna. She somehow felt like a confederate in crime, and tried to look severe and disapproving.\r\n\r\nThere had been but two letters from Robert, with little in them, they told her. Victor said it was really not worth while to go inside for the letters, when his mother entreated him to go in search of them. He remembered the contents, which in truth he rattled off very glibly when put to the test.\r\n\r\nOne letter was written from Vera Cruz and the other from the City of Mexico. He had met Montel, who was doing everything toward his advancement. So far, the financial situation was no improvement over the one he had left in New Orleans, but of course the prospects were vastly better. He wrote of the City of Mexico, the buildings, the people and their habits, the conditions of life which he found there. He sent his love to the family. He inclosed a check to his mother, and hoped she would affectionately remember him to all his friends. That was about the substance of the two letters. Edna felt that if there had been a message for her, she would have received it. The despondent frame of mind in which she had left home began again to overtake her, and she remembered that she wished to find Mademoiselle Reisz.\r\n\r\nMadame Lebrun knew where Mademoiselle Reisz lived. She gave Edna the address, regretting that she would not consent to stay and spend the remainder of the afternoon, and pay a visit to Mademoiselle Reisz some other day. The afternoon was already well advanced.\r\n\r\nVictor escorted her out upon the banquette, lifted her parasol, and held it over her while he walked to the car[footnote]Streetcar.[\/footnote] with her. He entreated her to bear in mind that the disclosures of the afternoon were strictly confidential. She laughed and bantered him a little, remembering too late that she should have been dignified and reserved.\r\n\r\n\u201cHow handsome Mrs. Pontellier looked!\u201d said Madame Lebrun to her son.\r\n\r\n\u201cRavishing!\u201d he admitted. \u201cThe city atmosphere has improved her. Some way she doesn't seem like the same woman.\u201d\r\n
                                        \r\n

                                        Chapter XX Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                        \r\n
                                          \r\n \t
                                        1. What does Victor notice about Edna when she visits his mother?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                        2. Why does Edna visit the Lebruns at their home in the French Quarter?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                        3. Why is Edna disappointed with the contents of Robert\u2019s two letters to his family?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                          Chapter XXI<\/h1>\r\nSome people contended that the reason Mademoiselle Reisz always chose apartments up under the roof was to discourage the approach of beggars, peddlars and callers. There were plenty of windows in her little front room. They were for the most part dingy, but as they were nearly always open it did not make so much difference. They often admitted into the room a good deal of smoke and soot; but at the same time all the light and air that there was came through them. From her windows could be seen the crescent of the river, the masts of ships and the big chimneys of the Mississippi steamers. A magnificent piano crowded the apartment. In the next room she slept, and in the third and last she harbored a gasoline stove on which she cooked her meals when disinclined to descend to the neighboring restaurant. It was there also that she ate, keeping her belongings in a rare old buffet, dingy and battered from a hundred years of use.\r\n\r\nWhen Edna knocked at Mademoiselle Reisz's front room door and entered, she discovered that person standing beside the window, engaged in mending or patching an old prunella gaiter[footnote]An overshoe with fabric upper that covers the ankle.[\/footnote]. The little musician laughed all over when she saw Edna. Her laugh consisted of a contortion of the face and all the muscles of the body. She seemed strikingly homely, standing there in the afternoon light. She still wore the shabby lace and the artificial bunch of violets on the side of her head.\r\n\r\n\u201cSo you remembered me at last,\u201d said Mademoiselle. \u201cI had said to myself, 'Ah, bah! she will never come.'\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDid you want me to come?\u201d asked Edna with a smile.\r\n\r\n\u201cI had not thought much about it,\u201d answered Mademoiselle. The two had seated themselves on a little bumpy sofa which stood against the wall. \u201cI am glad, however, that you came. I have the water boiling back there, and was just about to make some coffee. You will drink a cup with me. And how is la belle dame[footnote](French) Beautiful lady.[\/footnote]<\/em>? Always handsome! always healthy! always contented!\u201d She took Edna's hand between her strong wiry fingers, holding it loosely without warmth, and executing a sort of double theme upon the back and palm.\r\n\r\n\u201cYes,\u201d she went on; \u201cI sometimes thought: 'She will never come. She promised as those women in society always do, without meaning it. She will not come.' For I really don't believe you like me, Mrs. Pontellier.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI don't know whether I like you or not,\u201d replied Edna, gazing down at the little woman with a quizzical look.\r\n\r\nThe candor of Mrs. Pontellier's admission greatly pleased Mademoiselle Reisz. She expressed her gratification by repairing forthwith to the region of the gasoline stove and rewarding her guest with the promised cup of coffee. The coffee and the biscuit accompanying it proved very acceptable to Edna, who had declined refreshment at Madame Lebrun's and was now beginning to feel hungry. Mademoiselle set the tray which she brought in upon a small table near at hand, and seated herself once again on the lumpy sofa.\r\n\r\n\u201cI have had a letter from your friend,\u201d she remarked, as she poured a little cream into Edna's cup and handed it to her.\r\n\r\n\u201cMy friend?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, your friend Robert. He wrote to me from the City of Mexico.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWrote to you<\/em>?\u201d repeated Edna in amazement, stirring her coffee absently.\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, to me. Why not? Don't stir all the warmth out of your coffee; drink it. Though the letter might as well have been sent to you; it was nothing but Mrs. Pontellier from beginning to end.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cLet me see it,\u201d requested the young woman, entreatingly.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; a letter concerns no one but the person who writes it and the one to whom it is written.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cHaven't you just said it concerned me from beginning to end?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was written about you, not to you. 'Have you seen Mrs. Pontellier? How is she looking?' he asks. 'As Mrs. Pontellier says,' or 'as Mrs. Pontellier once said.' 'If Mrs. Pontellier should call upon you, play for her that Impromptu[footnote]\u201cFantaisie-Impromptu in C-Sharp Minor.\u201d[\/footnote] of Chopin's, my favorite. I heard it here a day or two ago, but not as you play it. I should like to know how it affects her,' and so on, as if he supposed we were constantly in each other's society.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cLet me see the letter.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, no.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cHave you answered it?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cLet me see the letter.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo, and again, no.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThen play the Impromptu for me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt is growing late; what time do you have to be home?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cTime doesn't concern me. Your question seems a little rude. Play the Impromptu.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut you have told me nothing of yourself. What are you doing?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cPainting!\u201d laughed Edna. \u201cI am becoming an artist. Think of it!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAh! an artist! You have pretensions, Madame.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy pretensions? Do you think I could not become an artist?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI do not know you well enough to say. I do not know your talent or your temperament. To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts\u2014absolute gifts\u2014which have not been acquired by one's own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat do you mean by the courageous soul?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cCourageous, ma foi<\/em>! The brave soul. The soul that dares and defies.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cShow me the letter and play for me the Impromptu. You see that I have persistence. Does that quality count for anything in art?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt counts with a foolish old woman whom you have captivated,\u201d replied Mademoiselle, with her wriggling laugh.\r\n\r\nThe letter was right there at hand in the drawer of the little table upon which Edna had just placed her coffee cup. Mademoiselle opened the drawer and drew forth the letter, the topmost one. She placed it in Edna's hands, and without further comment arose and went to the piano.\r\n\r\nMademoiselle played a soft interlude. It was an improvisation. She sat low at the instrument, and the lines of her body settled into ungraceful curves and angles that gave it an appearance of deformity. Gradually and imperceptibly the interlude melted into the soft opening minor chords of the Chopin Impromptu.\r\n\r\nEdna did not know when the Impromptu began or ended. She sat in the sofa corner reading Robert's letter by the fading light. Mademoiselle had glided from the Chopin into the quivering love notes of Isolde's song[footnote]In Tristan and Isolde<\/em>, an opera by Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Isolde sings to her dead lover, Tristan, before dying of grief.[\/footnote], and back again to the Impromptu with its soulful and poignant longing.\r\n\r\nThe shadows deepened in the little room. The music grew strange and fantastic\u2014turbulent, insistent, plaintive and soft with entreaty. The shadows grew deeper. The music filled the room. It floated out upon the night, over the housetops, the crescent of the river, losing itself in the silence of the upper air.\r\n\r\nEdna was sobbing, just as she had wept one midnight at Grand Isle when strange, new voices awoke in her. She arose in some agitation to take her departure. \u201cMay I come again, Mademoiselle?\u201d she asked at the threshold.\r\n\r\n\u201cCome whenever you feel like it. Be careful; the stairs and landings are dark; don't stumble.\u201d\r\n\r\nMademoiselle reentered and lit a candle. Robert's letter was on the floor. She stooped and picked it up. It was crumpled and damp with tears. Mademoiselle smoothed the letter out, restored it to the envelope, and replaced it in the table drawer.\r\n
                                          \r\n

                                          Chapter XXI Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                          \r\n
                                            \r\n \t
                                          1. What does Mlle Reisz insist an artist must have?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                          2. What theme is introduced by Mlle Reisz\u2019s choice of the Chopin and Wagner pieces?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                          3. What might the piano music from Wagner\u2019s Tristan und Isolde<\/em> foreshadow?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                            Chapter XXII<\/h1>\r\nOne morning on his way into town Mr. Pontellier stopped at the house of his old friend and family physician, Doctor Mandelet. The Doctor was a semi-retired physician, resting, as the saying is, upon his laurels. He bore a reputation for wisdom rather than skill\u2014leaving the active practice of medicine to his assistants and younger contemporaries\u2014and was much sought for in matters of consultation. A few families, united to him by bonds of friendship, he still attended when they required the services of a physician. The Pontelliers were among these.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier found the Doctor reading at the open window of his study. His house stood rather far back from the street, in the center of a delightful garden, so that it was quiet and peaceful at the old gentleman's study window. He was a great reader. He stared up disapprovingly over his eye-glasses as Mr. Pontellier entered, wondering who had the temerity to disturb him at that hour of the morning.\r\n\r\n\u201cAh, Pontellier! Not sick, I hope. Come and have a seat. What news do you bring this morning?\u201d He was quite portly, with a profusion of gray hair, and small blue eyes which age had robbed of much of their brightness but none of their penetration.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! I'm never sick, Doctor. You know that I come of tough fiber\u2014of that old Creole race of Pontelliers that dry up and finally blow away. I came to consult\u2014no, not precisely to consult\u2014to talk to you about Edna. I don't know what ails her.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cMadame Pontellier not well,\u201d marveled the Doctor. \u201cWhy, I saw her\u2014I think it was a week ago\u2014walking along Canal Street, the picture of health, it seemed to me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, yes; she seems quite well,\u201d said Mr. Pontellier, leaning forward and whirling his stick between his two hands; \u201cbut she doesn't act well. She's odd, she's not like herself. I can't make her out, and I thought perhaps you'd help me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cHow does she act?\u201d inquired the Doctor.\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, it isn't easy to explain,\u201d said Mr. Pontellier, throwing himself back in his chair. \u201cShe lets the housekeeping go to the dickens.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, well; women are not all alike, my dear Pontellier. We've got to consider\u2014\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI know that; I told you I couldn't explain. Her whole attitude\u2014toward me and everybody and everything\u2014has changed. You know I have a quick temper, but I don't want to quarrel or be rude to a woman, especially my wife; yet I'm driven to it, and feel like ten thousand devils after I've made a fool of myself. She's making it devilishly uncomfortable for me,\u201d he went on nervously. \u201cShe's got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women; and\u2014you understand\u2014we meet in the morning at the breakfast table.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe old gentleman lifted his shaggy eyebrows, protruded his thick nether lip, and tapped the arms of his chair with his cushioned fingertips.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat have you been doing to her, Pontellier?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDoing! Parbleu[footnote](French) \u201cGood heavens!\u201d[\/footnote]!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cHas she,\u201d asked the Doctor, with a smile, \u201chas she been associating of late with a circle of pseudo-intellectual women\u2014super-spiritual superior beings? My wife has been telling me about them.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThat's the trouble,\u201d broke in Mr. Pontellier, \u201cshe hasn't been associating with any one. She has abandoned her Tuesdays at home, has thrown over all her acquaintances, and goes tramping about by herself, moping in the street-cars, getting in after dark. I tell you she's peculiar. I don't like it; I feel a little worried over it.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis was a new aspect for the Doctor. \u201cNothing hereditary?\u201d he asked, seriously. \u201cNothing peculiar about her family antecedents, is there?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, no, indeed! She comes of sound old Presbyterian Kentucky stock. The old gentleman, her father, I have heard, used to atone for his weekday sins with his Sunday devotions. I know for a fact, that his race horses literally ran away with the prettiest bit of Kentucky farming land I ever laid eyes upon. Margaret\u2014you know Margaret\u2014she has all the Presbyterianism undiluted. And the youngest is something of a vixen. By the way, she gets married in a couple of weeks from now.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cSend your wife up to the wedding,\u201d exclaimed the Doctor, foreseeing a happy solution. \u201cLet her stay among her own people for a while; it will do her good.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThat's what I want her to do. She won't go to the marriage. She says a wedding is one of the most lamentable spectacles on earth. Nice thing for a woman to say to her husband!\u201d exclaimed Mr. Pontellier, fuming anew at the recollection.\r\n\r\n\u201cPontellier,\u201d said the Doctor, after a moment's reflection, \u201clet your wife alone for a while. Don't bother her, and don't let her bother you. Woman, my dear friend, is a very peculiar and delicate organism\u2014a sensitive and highly organized woman, such as I know Mrs. Pontellier to be, is especially peculiar. It would require an inspired psychologist to deal successfully with them. And when ordinary fellows like you and me attempt to cope with their idiosyncrasies the result is bungling. Most women are moody and whimsical. This is some passing whim of your wife, due to some cause or causes which you and I needn't try to fathom. But it will pass happily over, especially if you let her alone. Send her around to see me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! I couldn't do that; there'd be no reason for it,\u201d objected Mr. Pontellier.\r\n\r\n\u201cThen I'll go around and see her,\u201d said the Doctor. \u201cI'll drop in to dinner some evening en bon ami.[footnote](French) \u201cAs a good friend.\u201d[\/footnote]<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u201cDo! by all means,\u201d urged Mr. Pontellier. \u201cWhat evening will you come? Say Thursday. Will you come Thursday?\u201d he asked, rising to take his leave.\r\n\r\n\u201cVery well; Thursday. My wife may possibly have some engagement for me Thursday. In case she has, I shall let you know. Otherwise, you may expect me.\u201d\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier turned before leaving to say:\r\n\r\n\u201cI am going to New York on business very soon. I have a big scheme on hand, and want to be on the field proper to pull the ropes and handle the ribbons. We'll let you in on the inside if you say so, Doctor,\u201d he laughed.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo, I thank you, my dear sir,\u201d returned the Doctor. \u201cI leave such ventures to you younger men with the fever of life still in your blood.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat I wanted to say,\u201d continued Mr. Pontellier, with his hand on the knob; \u201cI may have to be absent a good while. Would you advise me to take Edna along?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBy all means, if she wishes to go. If not, leave her here. Don't contradict her. The mood will pass, I assure you. It may take a month, two, three months\u2014possibly longer, but it will pass; have patience.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, good-byee, \u00e0 jeudi<\/em>,[footnote](French) \u201cUntil Thursday.\u201d[\/footnote]\u201d said Mr. Pontellier, as he let himself out.\r\n\r\nThe Doctor would have liked during the course of conversation to ask, \u201cIs there any man in the case?\u201d but he knew his Creole too well to make such a blunder as that.\r\n\r\nHe did not resume his book immediately, but sat for a while meditatively looking out into the garden.\r\n
                                            \r\n

                                            Chapter XXII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                            \r\n
                                              \r\n \t
                                            1. What does Doctor Mandelet suspect might be the cause of Edna\u2019s recent behaviour?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                              Chapter XXIII<\/h1>\r\nEdna's father was in the city, and had been with them several days. She was not very warmly or deeply attached to him, but they had certain tastes in common, and when together they were companionable. His coming was in the nature of a welcome disturbance; it seemed to furnish a new direction for her emotions.\r\n\r\nHe had come to purchase a wedding gift for his daughter, Janet, and an outfit for himself in which he might make a creditable appearance at her marriage. Mr. Pontellier had selected the bridal gift, as everyone immediately connected with him always deferred to his taste in such matters. And his suggestions on the question of dress\u2014which too often assumes the nature of a problem\u2014were of inestimable value to his father-in-law. But for the past few days the old gentleman had been upon Edna's hands, and in his society she was becoming acquainted with a new set of sensations. He had been a colonel in the Confederate army, and still maintained, with the title, the military bearing which had always accompanied it. His hair and mustache were white and silky, emphasizing the rugged bronze of his face. He was tall and thin, and wore his coats padded, which gave a fictitious breadth and depth to his shoulders and chest. Edna and her father looked very distinguished together, and excited a good deal of notice during their perambulations. Upon his arrival she began by introducing him to her atelier<\/em> and making a sketch of him. He took the whole matter very seriously. If her talent had been ten-fold greater than it was, it would not have surprised him, convinced as he was that he had bequeathed to all of his daughters the germs of a masterful capability, which only depended upon their own efforts to be directed toward successful achievement.\r\n\r\nBefore her pencil he sat rigid and unflinching, as he had faced the cannon's mouth in days gone by. He resented the intrusion of the children, who gaped with wondering eyes at him, sitting so stiff up there in their mother's bright atelier<\/em>. When they drew near he motioned them away with an expressive action of the foot, loath to disturb the fixed lines of his countenance, his arms, or his rigid shoulders.\r\n\r\nEdna, anxious to entertain him, invited Mademoiselle Reisz to meet him, having promised him a treat in her piano playing; but Mademoiselle declined the invitation. So together they attended a soiree musicale at the Ratignolles'. Monsieur and Madame Ratignolle made much of the Colonel, installing him as the guest of honor and engaging him at once to dine with them the following Sunday, or any day which he might select. Madame coquetted with him in the most captivating and naive manner, with eyes, gestures, and a profusion of compliments, till the Colonel's old head felt thirty years younger on his padded shoulders. Edna marveled, not comprehending. She herself was almost devoid of coquetry.\r\n\r\nThere were one or two men whom she observed at the soiree musicale; but she would never have felt moved to any kittenish display to attract their notice\u2014to any feline or feminine wiles to express herself toward them. Their personality attracted her in an agreeable way. Her fancy selected them, and she was glad when a lull in the music gave them an opportunity to meet her and talk with her. Often on the street the glance of strange eyes had lingered in her memory, and sometimes had disturbed her.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier did not attend these soir\u00e9es musicales<\/em>. He considered them bourgeois<\/em>,[footnote](French) Middle-class, conventional.[\/footnote] and found more diversion at the club. To Madame Ratignolle he said the music dispensed at her soirees was too \u201cheavy,\u201d too far beyond his untrained comprehension. His excuse flattered her. But she disapproved of Mr. Pontellier's club, and she was frank enough to tell Edna so.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt's a pity Mr. Pontellier doesn't stay home more in the evenings. I think you would be more\u2014well, if you don't mind my saying it\u2014more united, if he did.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! dear no!\u201d said Edna, with a blank look in her eyes. \u201cWhat should I do if he stayed home? We wouldn't have anything to say to each other.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe had not much of anything to say to her father, for that matter; but he did not antagonize her. She discovered that he interested her, though she realized that he might not interest her long; and for the first time in her life she felt as if she were thoroughly acquainted with him. He kept her busy serving him and ministering to his wants. It amused her to do so. She would not permit a servant or one of the children to do anything for him which she might do herself. Her husband noticed, and thought it was the expression of a deep filial attachment which he had never suspected.\r\n\r\nThe Colonel drank numerous \u201ctoddies\u201d during the course of the day, which left him, however, imperturbed. He was an expert at concocting strong drinks. He had even invented some, to which he had given fantastic names, and for whose manufacture he required diverse ingredients that it devolved upon Edna to procure for him.\r\n\r\nWhen Doctor Mandelet dined with the Pontelliers on Thursday he could discern in Mrs. Pontellier no trace of that morbid condition which her husband had reported to him. She was excited and in a manner radiant. She and her father had been to the race course, and their thoughts when they seated themselves at table were still occupied with the events of the afternoon, and their talk was still of the track. The Doctor had not kept pace with turf affairs. He had certain recollections of racing in what he called \u201cthe good old times\u201d when the Lecompte stables flourished, and he drew upon this fund of memories so that he might not be left out and seem wholly devoid of the modern spirit. But he failed to impose upon the Colonel, and was even far from impressing him with this trumped-up knowledge of bygone days. Edna had staked her father on his last venture, with the most gratifying results to both of them. Besides, they had met some very charming people, according to the Colonel's impressions. Mrs. Mortimer Merriman and Mrs. James Highcamp, who were there with Alc\u00e9e Arobin, had joined them and had enlivened the hours in a fashion that warmed him to think of.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier himself had no particular leaning toward horse-racing, and was even rather inclined to discourage it as a pastime, especially when he considered the fate of that blue-grass farm in Kentucky. He endeavored, in a general way, to express a particular disapproval, and only succeeded in arousing the ire and opposition of his father-in-law. A pretty dispute followed, in which Edna warmly espoused her father's cause and the Doctor remained neutral.\r\n\r\nHe observed his hostess attentively from under his shaggy brows, and noted a subtle change which had transformed her from the listless woman he had known into a being who, for the moment, seemed palpitant with the forces of life. Her speech was warm and energetic. There was no repression in her glance or gesture. She reminded him of some beautiful, sleek animal waking up in the sun.\r\n\r\nThe dinner was excellent. The claret was warm and the champagne was cold, and under their beneficent influence the threatened unpleasantness melted and vanished with the fumes of the wine.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier warmed up and grew reminiscent. He told some amusing plantation experiences, recollections of old Iberville and his youth, when he hunted 'possum in company with some friendly darky; thrashed the pecan trees, shot the grosbec[footnote](French). Large beak, a bird with a long bill.[\/footnote], and roamed the woods and fields in mischievous idleness.\r\n\r\nThe Colonel, with little sense of humor and of the fitness of things, related a somber episode of those dark and bitter days, in which he had acted a conspicuous part and always formed a central figure. Nor was the Doctor happier in his selection, when he told the old, ever new and curious story of the waning of a woman's love, seeking strange, new channels, only to return to its legitimate source after days of fierce unrest. It was one of the many little human documents which had been unfolded to him during his long career as a physician. The story did not seem especially to impress Edna. She had one of her own to tell, of a woman who paddled away with her lover one night in a pirogue and never came back. They were lost amid the Baratarian Islands, and no one ever heard of them or found trace of them from that day to this. It was a pure invention. She said that Madame Antoine had related it to her. That, also, was an invention. Perhaps it was a dream she had had. But every glowing word seemed real to those who listened. They could feel the hot breath of the Southern night; they could hear the long sweep of the pirogue through the glistening moonlit water, the beating of birds' wings, rising startled from among the reeds in the salt-water pools; they could see the faces of the lovers, pale, close together, rapt in oblivious forgetfulness, drifting into the unknown.\r\n\r\nThe champagne was cold, and its subtle fumes played fantastic tricks with Edna's memory that night.\r\n\r\nOutside, away from the glow of the fire and the soft lamplight, the night was chill and murky. The Doctor doubled his old-fashioned cloak across his breast as he strode home through the darkness. He knew his fellow-creatures better than most men; knew that inner life which so seldom unfolds itself to unanointed eyes. He was sorry he had accepted Pontellier's invitation. He was growing old, and beginning to need rest and an imperturbed spirit. He did not want the secrets of other lives thrust upon him.\r\n\r\n\u201cI hope it isn't Arobin,\u201d he muttered to himself as he walked. \u201cI hope to heaven it isn't Alc\u00e9e Arobin.\u201d\r\n
                                              \r\n

                                              Chapter XXIII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                              \r\n
                                                \r\n \t
                                              1. Why is Edna\u2019s father, the Colonel from Kentucky, in New Orleans?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                              2. What interest do Edna and her father share?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                              3. At the Pontellier dinner party, what simile does Dr. Mandelet use to describe Edna?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                              4. What does Edna\u2019s story foreshadow?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                Chapter XXIV<\/h1>\r\nEdna and her father had a warm, and almost violent dispute upon the subject of her refusal to attend her sister's wedding. Mr. Pontellier declined to interfere, to interpose either his influence or his authority. He was following Doctor Mandelet's advice, and letting her do as she liked. The Colonel reproached his daughter for her lack of filial kindness and respect, her want of sisterly affection and womanly consideration. His arguments were labored and unconvincing. He doubted if Janet would accept any excuse\u2014forgetting that Edna had offered none. He doubted if Janet would ever speak to her again, and he was sure Margaret would not.\r\n\r\nEdna was glad to be rid of her father when he finally took himself off with his wedding garments and his bridal gifts, with his padded shoulders, his Bible reading, his \u201ctoddies\u201d and ponderous oaths.\r\n\r\nMr. Pontellier followed him closely. He meant to stop at the wedding on his way to New York and endeavor by every means which money and love could devise to atone somewhat for Edna's incomprehensible action.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou are too lenient, too lenient by far, L\u00e9once,\u201d asserted the Colonel. \u201cAuthority, coercion are what is needed. Put your foot down good and hard; the only way to manage a wife. Take my word for it.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe Colonel was perhaps unaware that he had coerced his own wife into her grave. Mr. Pontellier had a vague suspicion of it which he thought it needless to mention at that late day.\r\n\r\nEdna was not so consciously gratified at her husband's leaving home as she had been over the departure of her father. As the day approached when he was to leave her for a comparatively long stay, she grew melting and affectionate, remembering his many acts of consideration and his repeated expressions of an ardent attachment. She was solicitous about his health and his welfare. She bustled around, looking after his clothing, thinking about heavy underwear, quite as Madame Ratignolle would have done under similar circumstances. She cried when he went away, calling him her dear, good friend, and she was quite certain she would grow lonely before very long and go to join him in New York.\r\n\r\nBut after all, a radiant peace settled upon her when she at last found herself alone. Even the children were gone. Old Madame Pontellier had come herself and carried them off to Iberville with their quadroon. The old madame did not venture to say she was afraid they would be neglected during L\u00e9once's absence; she hardly ventured to think so. She was hungry for them\u2014even a little fierce in her attachment. She did not want them to be wholly \u201cchildren of the pavement,\u201d she always said when begging to have them for a space. She wished them to know the country, with its streams, its fields, its woods, its freedom, so delicious to the young. She wished them to taste something of the life their father had lived and known and loved when he, too, was a little child.\r\n\r\nWhen Edna was at last alone, she breathed a big, genuine sigh of relief. A feeling that was unfamiliar but very delicious came over her. She walked all through the house, from one room to another, as if inspecting it for the first time. She tried the various chairs and lounges, as if she had never sat and reclined upon them before. And she perambulated around the outside of the house, investigating, looking to see if windows and shutters were secure and in order. The flowers were like new acquaintances; she approached them in a familiar spirit, and made herself at home among them. The garden walks were damp, and Edna called to the maid to bring out her rubber sandals. And there she stayed, and stooped, digging around the plants, trimming, picking dead, dry leaves. The children's little dog came out, interfering, getting in her way. She scolded him, laughed at him, played with him. The garden smelled so good and looked so pretty in the afternoon sunlight. Edna plucked all the bright flowers she could find, and went into the house with them, she and the little dog.\r\n\r\nEven the kitchen assumed a sudden interesting character which she had never before perceived. She went in to give directions to the cook, to say that the butcher would have to bring much less meat, that they would require only half their usual quantity of bread, of milk and groceries. She told the cook that she herself would be greatly occupied during Mr. Pontellier's absence, and she begged her to take all thought and responsibility of the larder upon her own shoulders.\r\n\r\nThat night Edna dined alone. The candelabra, with a few candles in the center of the table, gave all the light she needed. Outside the circle of light in which she sat, the large dining-room looked solemn and shadowy. The cook, placed upon her mettle, served a delicious repast\u2014a luscious tenderloin broiled \u00e0 point<\/em>[footnote]French \u201cTo perfection.\u201d[\/footnote]. The wine tasted good; the marron glac\u00e9<\/em>[footnote](French) Candied chestnuts.[\/footnote] seemed to be just what she wanted. It was so pleasant, too, to dine in a comfortable peignoir<\/em>.\r\n\r\nShe thought a little sentimentally about L\u00e9once and the children, and wondered what they were doing. As she gave a dainty scrap or two to the doggie, she talked intimately to him about Etienne and Raoul. He was beside himself with astonishment and delight over these companionable advances, and showed his appreciation by his little quick, snappy barks and a lively agitation.\r\n\r\nThen Edna sat in the library after dinner and read Emerson[footnote]Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). American essayist.[\/footnote] until she grew sleepy. She realized that she had neglected her reading, and determined to start anew upon a course of improving studies, now that her time was completely her own to do with as she liked.\r\n\r\nAfter a refreshing bath, Edna went to bed. And as she snuggled comfortably beneath the eiderdown a sense of restfulness invaded her, such as she had not known before.\r\n
                                                \r\n

                                                Chapter XXIV Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                \r\n
                                                  \r\n \t
                                                1. What excuse does Edna offer for not attending her sister\u2019s wedding? Why is this significant?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                2. Describe Edna\u2019s emotional state after L\u00e9once leaves for New York. Where are Edna\u2019s children?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                  Chapter XXV<\/h1>\r\nWhen the weather was dark and cloudy Edna could not work. She needed the sun to mellow and temper her mood to the sticking point. She had reached a stage when she seemed to be no longer feeling her way, working, when in the humor, with sureness and ease. And being devoid of ambition, and striving not toward accomplishment, she drew satisfaction from the work in itself.\r\n\r\nOn rainy or melancholy days Edna went out and sought the society of the friends she had made at Grand Isle. Or else she stayed indoors and nursed a mood with which she was becoming too familiar for her own comfort and peace of mind. It was not despair; but it seemed to her as if life were passing by, leaving its promise broken and unfulfilled. Yet there were other days when she listened, was led on and deceived by fresh promises which her youth held out to her.\r\n\r\nShe went again to the races, and again. Alc\u00e9e Arobin and Mrs. Highcamp called for her one bright afternoon in Arobin's drag[footnote]A large coach.[\/footnote]. Mrs. Highcamp was a worldly but unaffected, intelligent, slim, tall blonde woman in the forties, with an indifferent manner and blue eyes that stared. She had a daughter who served her as a pretext for cultivating the society of young men of fashion. Alc\u00e9e Arobin was one of them. He was a familiar figure at the race course, the opera, the fashionable clubs. There was a perpetual smile in his eyes, which seldom failed to awaken a corresponding cheerfulness in any one who looked into them and listened to his good-humored voice. His manner was quiet, and at times a little insolent. He possessed a good figure, a pleasing face, not overburdened with depth of thought or feeling; and his dress was that of the conventional man of fashion.\r\n\r\nHe admired Edna extravagantly, after meeting her at the races with her father. He had met her before on other occasions, but she had seemed to him unapproachable until that day. It was at his instigation that Mrs. Highcamp called to ask her to go with them to the Jockey Club[footnote]New Louisiana Jockey Club, a social club for the rich and prominent.[\/footnote] to witness the turf event of the season.\r\n\r\nThere were possibly a few track men out there who knew the race horse as well as Edna, but there was certainly none who knew it better. She sat between her two companions as one having authority to speak. She laughed at Arobin's pretensions, and deplored Mrs. Highcamp's ignorance. The race horse was a friend and intimate associate of her childhood. The atmosphere of the stables and the breath of the blue grass paddock revived in her memory and lingered in her nostrils. She did not perceive that she was talking like her father as the sleek geldings ambled in review before them. She played for very high stakes, and fortune favored her. The fever of the game flamed in her cheeks and eyes, and it got into her blood and into her brain like an intoxicant. People turned their heads to look at her, and more than one lent an attentive ear to her utterances, hoping thereby to secure the elusive but ever-desired \u201ctip.\u201d Arobin caught the contagion of excitement which drew him to Edna like a magnet. Mrs. Highcamp remained, as usual, unmoved, with her indifferent stare and uplifted eyebrows.\r\n\r\nEdna stayed and dined with Mrs. Highcamp upon being urged to do so. Arobin also remained and sent away his drag.\r\n\r\nThe dinner was quiet and uninteresting, save for the cheerful efforts of Arobin to enliven things. Mrs. Highcamp deplored the absence of her daughter from the races, and tried to convey to her what she had missed by going to the \u201cDante reading\u201d[footnote]Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). The author of The Divine Comedy<\/em>.[\/footnote] instead of joining them. The girl held a geranium leaf up to her nose and said nothing, but looked knowing and non-committal. Mr. Highcamp was a plain, bald-headed man, who only talked under compulsion. He was unresponsive. Mrs. Highcamp was full of delicate courtesy and consideration toward her husband. She addressed most of her conversation to him at table. They sat in the library after dinner and read the evening papers together under the droplight; while the younger people went into the drawing-room near by and talked. Miss Highcamp played some selections from Grieg[footnote]Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). Norwegian composer.[\/footnote] upon the piano. She seemed to have apprehended all of the composer's coldness and none of his poetry. While Edna listened she could not help wondering if she had lost her taste for music.\r\n\r\nWhen the time came for her to go home, Mr. Highcamp grunted a lame offer to escort her, looking down at his slippered feet with tactless concern. It was Arobin who took her home. The car ride was long, and it was late when they reached Esplanade Street. Arobin asked permission to enter for a second to light his cigarette\u2014his match safe[footnote]Fireproof box for matches.[\/footnote] was empty. He filled his match safe, but did not light his cigarette until he left her, after she had expressed her willingness to go to the races with him again.\r\n\r\nEdna was neither tired nor sleepy. She was hungry again, for the Highcamp dinner, though of excellent quality, had lacked abundance. She rummaged in the larder and brought forth a slice of Gruy\u00e8re[footnote]Cheese from Gruy\u00e8re, Switzerland.[\/footnote] and some crackers. She opened a bottle of beer which she found in the icebox. Edna felt extremely restless and excited. She vacantly hummed a fantastic tune as she poked at the wood embers on the hearth and munched a cracker.\r\n\r\nShe wanted something to happen\u2014something, anything; she did not know what. She regretted that she had not made Arobin stay a half hour to talk over the horses with her. She counted the money she had won. But there was nothing else to do, so she went to bed, and tossed there for hours in a sort of monotonous agitation.\r\n\r\nIn the middle of the night she remembered that she had forgotten to write her regular letter to her husband; and she decided to do so next day and tell him about her afternoon at the Jockey Club. She lay wide awake composing a letter which was nothing like the one which she wrote next day. When the maid awoke her in the morning Edna was dreaming of Mr. Highcamp playing the piano at the entrance of a music store on Canal Street, while his wife was saying to Alc\u00e9e Arobin, as they boarded an Esplanade Street car:\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat a pity that so much talent has been neglected! but I must go.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen, a few days later, Alc\u00e9e Arobin again called for Edna in his drag, Mrs. Highcamp was not with him. He said they would pick her up. But as that lady had not been apprised of his intention of picking her up, she was not at home. The daughter was just leaving the house to attend the meeting of a branch Folk Lore Society, and regretted that she could not accompany them. Arobin appeared nonplused, and asked Edna if there were any one else she cared to ask.\r\n\r\nShe did not deem it worth while to go in search of any of the fashionable acquaintances from whom she had withdrawn herself. She thought of Madame Ratignolle, but knew that her fair friend did not leave the house, except to take a languid walk around the block with her husband after nightfall. Mademoiselle Reisz would have laughed at such a request from Edna. Madame Lebrun might have enjoyed the outing, but for some reason Edna did not want her. So they went alone, she and Arobin.\r\n\r\nThe afternoon was intensely interesting to her. The excitement came back upon her like a remittent fever. Her talk grew familiar and confidential. It was no labor to become intimate with Arobin. His manner invited easy confidence. The preliminary stage of becoming acquainted was one which he always endeavored to ignore when a pretty and engaging woman was concerned.\r\n\r\nHe stayed and dined with Edna. He stayed and sat beside the wood fire. They laughed and talked; and before it was time to go he was telling her how different life might have been if he had known her years before. With ingenuous frankness he spoke of what a wicked, ill-disciplined boy he had been, and impulsively drew up his cuff to exhibit upon his wrist the scar from a saber cut which he had received in a duel outside of Paris when he was nineteen. She touched his hand as she scanned the red cicatrice[footnote]Scar.[\/footnote] on the inside of his white wrist. A quick impulse that was somewhat spasmodic impelled her fingers to close in a sort of clutch upon his hand. He felt the pressure of her pointed nails in the flesh of his palm.\r\n\r\nShe arose hastily and walked toward the mantel.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe sight of a wound or scar always agitates and sickens me,\u201d she said. \u201cI shouldn't have looked at it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI beg your pardon,\u201d he entreated, following her; \u201cit never occurred to me that it might be repulsive.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe stood close to her, and the effrontery in his eyes repelled the old, vanishing self in her, yet drew all her awakening sensuousness. He saw enough in her face to impel him to take her hand and hold it while he said his lingering good night.\r\n\r\n\u201cWill you go to the races again?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo,\u201d she said. \u201cI've had enough of the races. I don't want to lose all the money I've won, and I've got to work when the weather is bright, instead of\u2014\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes; work; to be sure. You promised to show me your work. What morning may I come up to your atelier<\/em>? To-morrow?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDay after?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo, no.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, please don't refuse me! I know something of such things. I might help you with a stray suggestion or two.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo. Good night. Why don't you go after you have said good night? I don't like you,\u201d she went on in a high, excited pitch, attempting to draw away her hand. She felt that her words lacked dignity and sincerity, and she knew that he felt it.\r\n\r\n\u201cI'm sorry you don't like me. I'm sorry I offended you. How have I offended you? What have I done? Can't you forgive me?\u201d And he bent and pressed his lips upon her hand as if he wished never more to withdraw them.\r\n\r\n\u201cMr. Arobin,\u201d she complained, \u201cI'm greatly upset by the excitement of the afternoon; I'm not myself. My manner must have misled you in some way. I wish you to go, please.\u201d She spoke in a monotonous, dull tone. He took his hat from the table, and stood with eyes turned from her, looking into the dying fire. For a moment or two he kept an impressive silence.\r\n\r\n\u201cYour manner has not misled me, Mrs. Pontellier,\u201d he said finally. \u201cMy own emotions have done that. I couldn't help it. When I'm near you, how could I help it? Don't think anything of it, don't bother, please. You see, I go when you command me. If you wish me to stay away, I shall do so. If you let me come back, I\u2014oh! you will let me come back?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe cast one appealing glance at her, to which she made no response. Alc\u00e9e Arobin's manner was so genuine that it often deceived even himself.\r\n\r\nEdna did not care or think whether it were genuine or not. When she was alone she looked mechanically at the back of her hand which he had kissed so warmly. Then she leaned her head down on the mantelpiece. She felt somewhat like a woman who in a moment of passion is betrayed into an act of infidelity, and realizes the significance of the act without being wholly awakened from its glamour. The thought was passing vaguely through her mind, \u201cWhat would he think?\u201d\r\n\r\nShe did not mean her husband; she was thinking of Robert Lebrun. Her husband seemed to her now like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse.\r\n\r\nShe lit a candle and went up to her room. Alc\u00e9e Arobin was absolutely nothing to her. Yet his presence, his manners, the warmth of his glances, and above all the touch of his lips upon her hand had acted like a narcotic upon her.\r\n\r\nShe slept a languorous sleep, interwoven with vanishing dreams.\r\n
                                                  \r\n

                                                  Chapter XXV Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                  \r\n
                                                    \r\n \t
                                                  1. Describe Alc\u00e9e Arobin. How does he differ from Robert?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                  2. What effect does Edna's physical attraction to Alc\u00e9e have on her feelings for Robert? Her husband?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                    Chapter XXVI<\/h1>\r\nAlc\u00e9e Arobin wrote Edna an elaborate note of apology, palpitant with sincerity. It embarrassed her; for in a cooler, quieter moment it appeared to her, absurd that she should have taken his action so seriously, so dramatically. She felt sure that the significance of the whole occurrence had lain in her own self-consciousness. If she ignored his note it would give undue importance to a trivial affair. If she replied to it in a serious spirit it would still leave in his mind the impression that she had in a susceptible moment yielded to his influence. After all, it was no great matter to have one's hand kissed. She was provoked at his having written the apology. She answered in as light and bantering a spirit as she fancied it deserved, and said she would be glad to have him look in upon her at work whenever he felt the inclination and his business gave him the opportunity.\r\n\r\nHe responded at once by presenting himself at her home with all his disarming naivet\u00e9. And then there was scarcely a day which followed that she did not see him or was not reminded of him. He was prolific in pretexts. His attitude became one of good-humored subservience and tacit adoration. He was ready at all times to submit to her moods, which were as often kind as they were cold. She grew accustomed to him. They became intimate and friendly by imperceptible degrees, and then by leaps. He sometimes talked in a way that astonished her at first and brought the crimson into her face; in a way that pleased her at last, appealing to the animalism that stirred impatiently within her.\r\n\r\nThere was nothing which so quieted the turmoil of Edna's senses as a visit to Mademoiselle Reisz. It was then, in the presence of that personality which was offensive to her, that the woman, by her divine art, seemed to reach Edna's spirit and set it free.\r\n\r\nIt was misty, with heavy, lowering atmosphere, one afternoon, when Edna climbed the stairs to the pianist's apartments under the roof. Her clothes were dripping with moisture. She felt chilled and pinched as she entered the room. Mademoiselle was poking at a rusty stove that smoked a little and warmed the room indifferently. She was endeavoring to heat a pot of chocolate on the stove. The room looked cheerless and dingy to Edna as she entered. A bust of Beethoven, covered with a hood of dust, scowled at her from the mantelpiece.\r\n\r\n\u201cAh! here comes the sunlight!\u201d exclaimed Mademoiselle, rising from her knees before the stove. \u201cNow it will be warm and bright enough; I can let the fire alone.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe closed the stove door with a bang, and approaching, assisted in removing Edna's dripping mackintosh.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou are cold; you look miserable. The chocolate will soon be hot. But would you rather have a taste of brandy? I have scarcely touched the bottle which you brought me for my cold.\u201d A piece of red flannel was wrapped around Mademoiselle's throat; a stiff neck compelled her to hold her head on one side.\r\n\r\n\u201cI will take some brandy,\u201d said Edna, shivering as she removed her gloves and overshoes. She drank the liquor from the glass as a man would have done. Then flinging herself upon the uncomfortable sofa she said, \u201cMademoiselle, I am going to move away from my house on Esplanade Street.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAh!\u201d ejaculated the musician, neither surprised nor especially interested. Nothing ever seemed to astonish her very much. She was endeavoring to adjust the bunch of violets which had become loose from its fastening in her hair. Edna drew her down upon the sofa, and taking a pin from her own hair, secured the shabby artificial flowers in their accustomed place.\r\n\r\n\u201cAren't you astonished?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cPassably. Where are you going? to New York? to Iberville? to your father in Mississippi? where?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cJust two steps away,\u201d laughed Edna, \u201cin a little four-room house around the corner. It looks so cozy, so inviting and restful, whenever I pass by; and it's for rent. I'm tired looking after that big house. It never seemed like mine, anyway\u2014like home. It's too much trouble. I have to keep too many servants. I am tired bothering with them.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThat is not your true reason, ma belle[footnote](French) My beauty.[\/footnote]<\/em>. There is no use in telling me lies. I don't know your reason, but you have not told me the truth.\u201d Edna did not protest or endeavor to justify herself.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe house, the money that provides for it, are not mine. Isn't that enough reason?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThey are your husband's,\u201d returned Mademoiselle, with a shrug and a malicious elevation of the eyebrows.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! I see there is no deceiving you. Then let me tell you: It is a caprice. I have a little money of my own from my mother's estate, which my father sends me by driblets. I won a large sum this winter on the races, and I am beginning to sell my sketches. Laidpore is more and more pleased with my work; he says it grows in force and individuality. I cannot judge of that myself, but I feel that I have gained in ease and confidence. However, as I said, I have sold a good many through Laidpore. I can live in the tiny house for little or nothing, with one servant. Old Celestine, who works occasionally for me, says she will come stay with me and do my work. I know I shall like it, like the feeling of freedom and independence.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat does your husband say?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI have not told him yet. I only thought of it this morning. He will think I am demented, no doubt. Perhaps you think so.\u201d\r\n\r\nMademoiselle shook her head slowly. \u201cYour reason is not yet clear to me,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nNeither was it quite clear to Edna herself; but it unfolded itself as she sat for a while in silence. Instinct had prompted her to put away her husband's bounty in casting off her allegiance. She did not know how it would be when he returned. There would have to be an understanding, an explanation. Conditions would some way adjust themselves, she felt; but whatever came, she had resolved never again to belong to another than herself.\r\n\r\n\u201cI shall give a grand dinner before I leave the old house!\u201d Edna exclaimed. \u201cYou will have to come to it, Mademoiselle. I will give you everything that you like to eat and to drink. We shall sing and laugh and be merry for once.\u201d And she uttered a sigh that came from the very depths of her being.\r\n\r\nIf Mademoiselle happened to have received a letter from Robert during the interval of Edna's visits, she would give her the letter unsolicited. And she would seat herself at the piano and play as her humor prompted her while the young woman read the letter.\r\n\r\nThe little stove was roaring; it was red-hot, and the chocolate in the tin sizzled and sputtered. Edna went forward and opened the stove door, and Mademoiselle rising, took a letter from under the bust of Beethoven and handed it to Edna.\r\n\r\n\u201cAnother! so soon!\u201d she exclaimed, her eyes filled with delight. \u201cTell me, Mademoiselle, does he know that I see his letters?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNever in the world! He would be angry and would never write to me again if he thought so. Does he write to you? Never a line. Does he send you a message? Never a word. It is because he loves you, poor fool, and is trying to forget you, since you are not free to listen to him or to belong to him.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy do you show me his letters, then?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cHaven't you begged for them? Can I refuse you anything? Oh! you cannot deceive me,\u201d and Mademoiselle approached her beloved instrument and began to play. Edna did not at once read the letter. She sat holding it in her hand, while the music penetrated her whole being like an effulgence, warming and brightening the dark places of her soul. It prepared her for joy and exultation.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh!\u201d she exclaimed, letting the letter fall to the floor. \u201cWhy did you not tell me?\u201d She went and grasped Mademoiselle's hands up from the keys. \u201cOh! unkind! malicious! Why did you not tell me?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThat he was coming back? No great news, ma foi<\/em>.[footnote](French) To be sure.[\/footnote] I wonder he did not come long ago.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut when, when?\u201d cried Edna, impatiently. \u201cHe does not say when.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cHe says 'very soon.' You know as much about it as I do; it is all in the letter.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut why? Why is he coming? Oh, if I thought\u2014\u201d and she snatched the letter from the floor and turned the pages this way and that way, looking for the reason, which was left untold.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf I were young and in love with a man,\u201d said Mademoiselle, turning on the stool and pressing her wiry hands between her knees as she looked down at Edna, who sat on the floor holding the letter, \u201cit seems to me he would have to be some grand esprit[footnote](French) Noble soul.[\/footnote]; a man with lofty aims and ability to reach them; one who stood high enough to attract the notice of his fellow-men. It seems to me if I were young and in love I should never deem a man of ordinary caliber worthy of my devotion.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNow it is you who are telling lies and seeking to deceive me, Mademoiselle; or else you have never been in love, and know nothing about it. Why,\u201d went on Edna, clasping her knees and looking up into Mademoiselle's twisted face, \u201cdo you suppose a woman knows why she loves? Does she select? Does she say to herself: 'Go to! Here is a distinguished statesman with presidential possibilities; I shall proceed to fall in love with him.' Or, 'I shall set my heart upon this musician, whose fame is on every tongue?' Or, 'This financier, who controls the world's money markets?'\r\n\r\n\u201cYou are purposely misunderstanding me, ma reine<\/em>.[footnote](French) My queen.[\/footnote] Are you in love with Robert?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes,\u201d said Edna. It was the first time she had admitted it, and a glow overspread her face, blotching it with red spots.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy?\u201d asked her companion. \u201cWhy do you love him when you ought not to?\u201d\r\n\r\nEdna, with a motion or two, dragged herself on her knees before Mademoiselle Reisz, who took the glowing face between her two hands.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy? Because his hair is brown and grows away from his temples; because he opens and shuts his eyes, and his nose is a little out of drawing; because he has two lips and a square chin, and a little finger which he can't straighten from having played baseball too energetically in his youth. Because\u2014\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBecause you do, in short,\u201d laughed Mademoiselle. \u201cWhat will you do when he comes back?\u201d she asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cDo? Nothing, except feel glad and happy to be alive.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe was already glad and happy to be alive at the mere thought of his return. The murky, lowering sky, which had depressed her a few hours before, seemed bracing and invigorating as she splashed through the streets on her way home.\r\n\r\nShe stopped at a confectioner's and ordered a huge box of bonbons for the children in Iberville. She slipped a card in the box, on which she scribbled a tender message and sent an abundance of kisses.\r\n\r\nBefore dinner in the evening Edna wrote a charming letter to her husband, telling him of her intention to move for a while into the little house around the block, and to give a farewell dinner before leaving, regretting that he was not there to share it, to help out with the menu and assist her in entertaining the guests. Her letter was brilliant and brimming with cheerfulness.\r\n
                                                    \r\n

                                                    Chapter XXVI Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                    \r\n
                                                      \r\n \t
                                                    1. How does Edna plan to finance her \u201cpigeon house\u201d?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                    2. What does Edna learn from Mlle Reisz about Robert\u2019s plans?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                      Chapter XXVII<\/h1>\r\n\u201cWhat is the matter with you?\u201d asked Arobin that evening. \u201cI never found you in such a happy mood.\u201d Edna was tired by that time, and was reclining on the lounge before the fire.\r\n\r\n\u201cDon't you know the weather prophet has told us we shall see the sun pretty soon?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, that ought to be reason enough,\u201d he acquiesced. \u201cYou wouldn't give me another if I sat here all night imploring you.\u201d He sat close to her on a low tabouret<\/em>[footnote](French) chair without arms or back.[\/footnote], and as he spoke his fingers lightly touched the hair that fell a little over her forehead. She liked the touch of his fingers through her hair, and closed her eyes sensitively.\r\n\r\n\u201cOne of these days,\u201d she said, \u201cI'm going to pull myself together for a while and think\u2014try to determine what character of a woman I am; for, candidly, I don't know. By all the codes which I am acquainted with, I am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex. But some way I can't convince myself that I am. I must think about it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDon't. What's the use? Why should you bother thinking about it when I can tell you what manner of woman you are.\u201d His fingers strayed occasionally down to her warm, smooth cheeks and firm chin, which was growing a little full and double.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, yes! You will tell me that I am adorable; everything that is captivating. Spare yourself the effort.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; I shan't tell you anything of the sort, though I shouldn't be lying if I did.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDo you know Mademoiselle Reisz?\u201d she asked irrelevantly.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe pianist? I know her by sight. I've heard her play.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cShe says queer things sometimes in a bantering way that you don't notice at the time and you find yourself thinking about afterward.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cFor instance?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, for instance, when I left her to-day, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. 'The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.' Whither would you soar?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI'm not thinking of any extraordinary flights. I only half comprehend her.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI've heard she's partially demented,\u201d said Arobin.\r\n\r\n\u201cShe seems to me wonderfully sane,\u201d Edna replied.\r\n\r\n\u201cI'm told she's extremely disagreeable and unpleasant. Why have you introduced her at a moment when I desired to talk of you?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! talk of me if you like,\u201d cried Edna, clasping her hands beneath her head; \u201cbut let me think of something else while you do.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI'm jealous of your thoughts tonight. They're making you a little kinder than usual; but some way I feel as if they were wandering, as if they were not here with me.\u201d She only looked at him and smiled. His eyes were very near. He leaned upon the lounge with an arm extended across her, while the other hand still rested upon her hair. They continued silently to look into each other's eyes. When he leaned forward and kissed her, she clasped his head, holding his lips to hers.\r\n\r\nIt was the first kiss of her life to which her nature had really responded. It was a flaming torch that kindled desire.\r\n
                                                      \r\n

                                                      Chapter XXVII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                      \r\n
                                                        \r\n \t
                                                      1. Discuss the bird symbolism in this chapter. What might it foreshadow?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                      2. Edna refers to herself as \u201ca devilishly wicked specimen of the sex.\u201d She is speaking of herself regarding \u201call the codes\u201d of conduct she knows. What does she do in this chapter that might justify that description of her in terms of nineteenth century codes of behaviour?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                        Chapter XXVIII<\/h1>\r\nEdna cried a little that night after Arobin left her. It was only one phase of the multitudinous emotions which had assailed her. There was with her an overwhelming feeling of irresponsibility. There was the shock of the unexpected and the unaccustomed. There was her husband's reproach looking at her from the external things around her which he had provided for her external existence. There was Robert's reproach making itself felt by a quicker, fiercer, more overpowering love, which had awakened within her toward him. Above all, there was understanding. She felt as if a mist had been lifted from her eyes, enabling her to took upon and comprehend the significance of life, that monster made up of beauty and brutality. But among the conflicting sensations which assailed her, there was neither shame nor remorse. There was a dull pang of regret because it was not the kiss of love which had inflamed her, because it was not love which had held this cup of life to her lips.\r\n
                                                        \r\n

                                                        Chapter XXVIII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                        \r\n
                                                          \r\n \t
                                                        1. What is Edna\u2019s major regret after Alc\u00e9e leaves her that night?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                          Chapter XXIX<\/h1>\r\nWithout even waiting for an answer from her husband regarding his opinion or wishes in the matter, Edna hastened her preparations for quitting her home on Esplanade Street and moving into the little house around the block. A feverish anxiety attended her every action in that direction. There was no moment of deliberation, no interval of repose between the thought and its fulfillment. Early upon the morning following those hours passed in Arobin's society, Edna set about securing her new abode and hurrying her arrangements for occupying it. Within the precincts of her home she felt like one who has entered and lingered within the portals of some forbidden temple in which a thousand muffled voices bade her begone.\r\n\r\nWhatever was her own in the house, everything which she had acquired aside from her husband's bounty, she caused to be transported to the other house, supplying simple and meager deficiencies from her own resources.\r\n\r\nArobin found her with rolled sleeves, working in company with the house-maid when he looked in during the afternoon. She was splendid and robust, and had never appeared handsomer than in the old blue gown, with a red silk handkerchief knotted at random around her head to protect her hair from the dust. She was mounted upon a high stepladder, unhooking a picture from the wall when he entered. He had found the front door open, and had followed his ring by walking in unceremoniously.\r\n\r\n\u201cCome down!\u201d he said. \u201cDo you want to kill yourself?\u201d She greeted him with affected carelessness, and appeared absorbed in her occupation.\r\n\r\nIf he had expected to find her languishing, reproachful, or indulging in sentimental tears, he must have been greatly surprised.\r\n\r\nHe was no doubt prepared for any emergency, ready for any one of the foregoing attitudes, just as he bent himself easily and naturally to the situation which confronted him.\r\n\r\n\u201cPlease come down,\u201d he insisted, holding the ladder and looking up at her.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo,\u201d she answered; \u201cEllen is afraid to mount the ladder. Joe is working over at the 'pigeon house'\u2014that's the name Ellen gives it, because it's so small and looks like a pigeon house\u2014and someone has to do this.\u201d\r\n\r\nArobin pulled off his coat, and expressed himself ready and willing to tempt fate in her place. Ellen brought him one of her dust-caps, and went into contortions of mirth, which she found it impossible to control, when she saw him put it on before the mirror as grotesquely as he could. Edna herself could not refrain from smiling when she fastened it at his request. So it was he who in turn mounted the ladder, unhooking pictures and curtains, and dislodging ornaments as Edna directed. When he had finished he took off his dust-cap and went out to wash his hands.\r\n\r\nEdna was sitting on the tabouret, idly brushing the tips of a feather duster along the carpet when he came in again.\r\n\r\n\u201cIs there anything more you will let me do?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cThat is all,\u201d she answered. \u201cEllen can manage the rest.\u201d She kept the young woman occupied in the drawing-room, unwilling to be left alone with Arobin.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat about the dinner?\u201d he asked; \u201cthe grand event, the coup d'\u00e9tat<\/em>?[footnote](French) A sudden and decisive effort.[\/footnote]\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt will be day after to-morrow. Why do you call it the \u2018coup d'\u00e9tat<\/em>?' Oh! it will be very fine; all my best of everything\u2014crystal, silver and gold, Sevres, flowers, music, and champagne to swim in. I'll let L\u00e9once pay the bills. I wonder what he'll say when he sees the bills.\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd you ask me why I call it a\u2018coup d'\u00e9tat\u2019<\/em>?\u201d Arobin had put on his coat, and he stood before her and asked if his cravat was plumb. She told him it was, looking no higher than the tip of his collar.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen do you go to the 'pigeon house?'\u2014with all due acknowledgment to Ellen.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDay after to-morrow, after the dinner. I shall sleep there.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cEllen, will you very kindly get me a glass of water?\u201d asked Arobin. \u201cThe dust in the curtains, if you will pardon me for hinting such a thing, has parched my throat to a crisp.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhile Ellen gets the water,\u201d said Edna, rising, \u201cI will say good-bye and let you go. I must get rid of this grime, and I have a million things to do and think of.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen shall I see you?\u201d asked Arobin, seeking to detain her, the maid having left the room.\r\n\r\n\u201cAt the dinner, of course. You are invited.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNot before?\u2014not to-night or to-morrow morning or tomorrow noon or night? or the day after morning or noon? Can't you see yourself, without my telling you, what an eternity it is?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe had followed her into the hall and to the foot of the stairway, looking up at her as she mounted with her face half turned to him.\r\n\r\n\u201cNot an instant sooner,\u201d she said. But she laughed and looked at him with eyes that at once gave him courage to wait and made it torture to wait.\r\n
                                                          \r\n

                                                          Chapter XXIX Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                          \r\n
                                                            \r\n \t
                                                          1. How has Edna acted upon subconscious desires that have been repressed since the first chapter?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                          2. Does she try to be fair to L\u00e9once here?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                            Chapter XXX<\/h1>\r\nThough Edna had spoken of the dinner as a very grand affair, it was in truth a very small affair and very select, in so much as the guests invited were few and were selected with discrimination. She had counted upon an even dozen seating themselves at her round mahogany board, forgetting for the moment that Madame Ratignolle was to the last degree souffrante[footnote](French) Ill.[\/footnote]<\/em> and unpresentable, and not foreseeing that Madame Lebrun would send a thousand regrets at the last moment. So there were only ten, after all, which made a cozy, comfortable number.\r\n\r\nThere were Mr. and Mrs. Merriman, a pretty, vivacious little woman in the thirties; her husband, a jovial fellow, something of a shallow-pate, who laughed a good deal at other people's witticisms, and had thereby made himself extremely popular. Mrs. Highcamp had accompanied them. Of course, there was Alc\u00e9e Arobin; and Mademoiselle Reisz had consented to come. Edna had sent her a fresh bunch of violets with black lace trimmings for her hair. Monsieur Ratignolle brought himself and his wife's excuses. Victor Lebrun, who happened to be in the city, bent upon relaxation, had accepted with alacrity. There was a Miss Mayblunt, no longer in her teens, who looked at the world through lorgnettes and with the keenest interest. It was thought and said that she was intellectual; it was suspected of her that she wrote under a nom de guerre<\/em>.[footnote](French) Pseudonym.[\/footnote] She had come with a gentleman by the name of Gouvernail, connected with one of the daily papers, of whom nothing special could be said, except that he was observant and seemed quiet and inoffensive. Edna herself made the tenth, and at half-past eight they seated themselves at table, Arobin and Monsieur Ratignolle on either side of their hostess.\r\n\r\nMrs. Highcamp sat between Arobin and Victor Lebrun. Then came Mrs. Merriman, Mr. Gouvernail, Miss Mayblunt, Mr. Merriman, and Mademoiselle Reisz next to Monsieur Ratignolle.\r\n\r\nThere was something extremely gorgeous about the appearance of the table, an effect of splendor conveyed by a cover of pale yellow satin under strips of lace-work. There were wax candles, in massive brass candelabra, burning softly under yellow silk shades; full, fragrant roses, yellow and red, abounded. There were silver and gold, as she had said there would be, and crystal which glittered like the gems which the women wore.\r\n\r\nThe ordinary stiff dining chairs had been discarded for the occasion and replaced by the most commodious and luxurious which could be collected throughout the house. Mademoiselle Reisz, being exceedingly diminutive, was elevated upon cushions, as small children are sometimes hoisted at table upon bulky volumes.\r\n\r\n\u201cSomething new, Edna?\u201d exclaimed Miss Mayblunt, with lorgnette directed toward a magnificent cluster of diamonds that sparkled, that almost sputtered, in Edna's hair, just over the center of her forehead.\r\n\r\n\u201cQuite new; 'brand' new, in fact; a present from my husband. It arrived this morning from New York. I may as well admit that this is my birthday, and that I am twenty-nine. In good time I expect you to drink my health. Meanwhile, I shall ask you to begin with this cocktail, composed\u2014would you say 'composed?'\u201d with an appeal to Miss Mayblunt\u2014\u201ccomposed by my father in honor of Sister Janet's wedding.\u201d\r\n\r\nBefore each guest stood a tiny glass that looked and sparkled like a garnet gem.\r\n\r\n\u201cThen, all things considered,\u201d spoke Arobin, \u201cit might not be amiss to start out by drinking the Colonel's health in the cocktail which he composed, on the birthday of the most charming of women\u2014the daughter whom he invented.\u201d\r\n\r\nMr. Merriman's laugh at this sally was such a genuine outburst and so contagious that it started the dinner with an agreeable swing that never slackened.\r\n\r\nMiss Mayblunt begged to be allowed to keep her cocktail untouched before her, just to look at. The color was marvelous! She could compare it to nothing she had ever seen, and the garnet lights which it emitted were unspeakably rare. She pronounced the Colonel an artist, and stuck to it.\r\n\r\nMonsieur Ratignolle was prepared to take things seriously; the mets<\/em>[footnote]Main dish; side dishes.[\/footnote] the entre-mets<\/em>, the service, the decorations, even the people. He looked up from his pompano[footnote]A fish of the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast.[\/footnote] and inquired of Arobin if he were related to the gentleman of that name who formed one of the firm of Laitner and Arobin, lawyers. The young man admitted that Laitner was a warm personal friend, who permitted Arobin's name to decorate the firm's letterheads and to appear upon a shingle that graced Perdido Street.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere are so many inquisitive people and institutions abounding,\u201d said Arobin, \u201cthat one is really forced as a matter of convenience these days to assume the virtue of an occupation if he has it not.\u201d Monsieur Ratignolle stared a little, and turned to ask Mademoiselle Reisz if she considered the symphony concerts up to the standard which had been set the previous winter. Mademoiselle Reisz answered Monsieur Ratignolle in French, which Edna thought a little rude, under the circumstances, but characteristic. Mademoiselle had only disagreeable things to say of the symphony concerts, and insulting remarks to make of all the musicians of New Orleans, singly and collectively. All her interest seemed to be centered upon the delicacies placed before her.\r\n\r\nMr. Merriman said that Mr. Arobin's remark about inquisitive people reminded him of a man from Waco[footnote]A city in Texas.[\/footnote] the other day at the St. Charles Hotel\u2014but as Mr. Merriman's stories were always lame and lacking point, his wife seldom permitted him to complete them. She interrupted him to ask if he remembered the name of the author whose book she had bought the week before to send to a friend in Geneva. She was talking \u201cbooks\u201d with Mr. Gouvernail and trying to draw from him his opinion upon current literary topics. Her husband told the story of the Waco man privately to Miss Mayblunt, who pretended to be greatly amused and to think it extremely clever.\r\n\r\nMrs. Highcamp hung with languid but unaffected interest upon the warm and impetuous volubility of her left-hand neighbor, Victor Lebrun. Her attention was never for a moment withdrawn from him after seating herself at table; and when he turned to Mrs. Merriman, who was prettier and more vivacious than Mrs. Highcamp, she waited with easy indifference for an opportunity to reclaim his attention. There was the occasional sound of music, of mandolins, sufficiently removed to be an agreeable accompaniment rather than an interruption to the conversation. Outside the soft, monotonous splash of a fountain could be heard; the sound penetrated into the room with the heavy odor of jessamine that came through the open windows.\r\n\r\nThe golden shimmer of Edna's satin gown spread in rich folds on either side of her. There was a soft fall of lace encircling her shoulders. It was the color of her skin, without the glow, the myriad living tints that one may sometimes discover in vibrant flesh. There was something in her attitude, in her whole appearance when she leaned her head against the high-backed chair and spread her arms, which suggested the regal woman, the one who rules, who looks on, who stands alone.\r\n\r\nBut as she sat there amid her guests, she felt the old ennui overtaking her; the hopelessness which so often assailed her, which came upon her like an obsession, like something extraneous, independent of volition. It was something which announced itself; a chill breath that seemed to issue from some vast cavern wherein discords waited. There came over her the acute longing which always summoned into her spiritual vision the presence of the beloved one, overpowering her at once with a sense of the unattainable.\r\n\r\nThe moments glided on, while a feeling of good fellowship passed around the circle like a mystic cord, holding and binding these people together with jest and laughter. Monsieur Ratignolle was the first to break the pleasant charm. At ten o'clock he excused himself. Madame Ratignolle was waiting for him at home. She was bien souffrante<\/em>, and she was filled with vague dread, which only her husband's presence could allay.\r\n\r\nMademoiselle Reisz arose with Monsieur Ratignolle, who offered to escort her to the car. She had eaten well; she had tasted the good, rich wines, and they must have turned her head, for she bowed pleasantly to all as she withdrew from table. She kissed Edna upon the shoulder, and whispered: \u201cBonne nuit, ma reine; soyez sage<\/em>.[footnote](French) Good night, my dear. Be good.[\/footnote]\u201d She had been a little bewildered upon rising, or rather, descending from her cushions, and Monsieur Ratignolle gallantly took her arm and led her away.\r\n\r\nMrs. Highcamp was weaving a garland of roses, yellow and red. When she had finished the garland, she laid it lightly upon Victor's black curls. He was reclining far back in the luxurious chair, holding a glass of champagne to the light.\r\n\r\nAs if a magician's wand had touched him, the garland of roses transformed him into a vision of Oriental beauty. His cheeks were the color of crushed grapes, and his dusky eyes glowed with a languishing fire.\r\n\r\n\u201cSapristi<\/em>!\u201d exclaimed Arobin.\r\n\r\nBut Mrs. Highcamp had one more touch to add to the picture. She took from the back of her chair a white silken scarf, with which she had covered her shoulders in the early part of the evening. She draped it across the boy in graceful folds, and in a way to conceal his black, conventional evening dress. He did not seem to mind what she did to him, only smiled, showing a faint gleam of white teeth, while he continued to gaze with narrowing eyes at the light through his glass of champagne.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! to be able to paint in color rather than in words!\u201d exclaimed Miss Mayblunt, losing herself in a rhapsodic dream as she looked at him.\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c'There was a graven image of Desire<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Painted with red blood on a ground of gold.'\u201d[footnote]From the sonnet \u201cA Cameo\u201d by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909).[\/footnote]<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>\r\n\r\nmurmured Gouvernail, under his breath.\r\n\r\nThe effect of the wine upon Victor was to change his accustomed volubility into silence. He seemed to have abandoned himself to a reverie, and to be seeing pleasing visions in the amber bead.\r\n\r\n\u201cSing,\u201d entreated Mrs. Highcamp. \u201cWon't you sing to us?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cLet him alone,\u201d said Arobin.\r\n\r\n\u201cHe's posing,\u201d offered Mr. Merriman; \u201clet him have it out.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI believe he's paralyzed,\u201d laughed Mrs. Merriman. And leaning over the youth's chair, she took the glass from his hand and held it to his lips. He sipped the wine slowly, and when he had drained the glass she laid it upon the table and wiped his lips with her little filmy handkerchief.\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, I'll sing for you,\u201d he said, turning in his chair toward Mrs. Highcamp. He clasped his hands behind his head, and looking up at the ceiling began to hum a little, trying his voice like a musician tuning an instrument. Then, looking at Edna, he began to sing:\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAh! si tu savais!\u201d<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u201cStop!\u201d she cried, \u201cdon't sing that. I don't want you to sing it,\u201d and she laid her glass so impetuously and blindly upon the table as to shatter it against a carafe. The wine spilled over Arobin's legs and some of it trickled down upon Mrs. Highcamp's black gauze gown. Victor had lost all idea of courtesy, or else he thought his hostess was not in earnest, for he laughed and went on:\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAh! si tu savais<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ce que tes yeux me disent\u201d\u2014<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! you mustn't! you mustn't,\u201d exclaimed Edna, and pushing back her chair she got up, and going behind him placed her hand over his mouth. He kissed the soft palm that pressed upon his lips.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo, no, I won't, Mrs. Pontellier. I didn't know you meant it,\u201d looking up at her with caressing eyes. The touch of his lips was like a pleasing sting to her hand. She lifted the garland of roses from his head and flung it across the room.\r\n\r\n\u201cCome, Victor; you've posed long enough. Give Mrs. Highcamp her scarf.\u201d\r\n\r\nMrs. Highcamp undraped the scarf from about him with her own hands. Miss Mayblunt and Mr. Gouvernail suddenly conceived the notion that it was time to say good night. And Mr. and Mrs. Merriman wondered how it could be so late.\r\n\r\nBefore parting from Victor, Mrs. Highcamp invited him to call upon her daughter, who she knew would be charmed to meet him and talk French and sing French songs with him. Victor expressed his desire and intention to call upon Miss Highcamp at the first opportunity which presented itself. He asked if Arobin were going his way. Arobin was not.\r\n\r\nThe mandolin players had long since stolen away. A profound stillness had fallen upon the broad, beautiful street. The voices of Edna's disbanding guests jarred like a discordant note upon the quiet harmony of the night.\r\n
                                                            \r\n

                                                            Chapter XXX Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                            \r\n
                                                              \r\n \t
                                                            1. How does Edna celebrate her twenty-ninth birthday?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                            2. Why does Edna become so upset when Victor sings \u201cAh, si tu savais\u201d<\/em>?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                            3. What accounts for Edna\u2019s eventual sadness at the party?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                              Chapter XXXI<\/h1>\r\n\u201cWell?\u201d questioned Arobin, who had remained with Edna after the others had departed.\r\n\r\n\u201cWell,\u201d she reiterated, and stood up, stretching her arms, and feeling the need to relax her muscles after having been so long seated.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat next?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe servants are all gone. They left when the musicians did. I have dismissed them. The house has to be closed and locked, and I shall trot around to the pigeon house, and shall send Celestine over in the morning to straighten things up.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe looked around, and began to turn out some of the lights.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat about upstairs?\u201d he inquired.\r\n\r\n\u201cI think it is all right; but there may be a window or two unlatched. We had better look; you might take a candle and see. And bring me my wrap and hat on the foot of the bed in the middle room.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe went up with the light, and Edna began closing doors and windows. She hated to shut in the smoke and the fumes of the wine. Arobin found her cape and hat, which he brought down and helped her to put on.\r\n\r\nWhen everything was secured and the lights put out, they left through the front door, Arobin locking it and taking the key, which he carried for Edna. He helped her down the steps.\r\n\r\n\u201cWill you have a spray of jessamine?\u201d he asked, breaking off a few blossoms as he passed.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; I don't want anything.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe seemed disheartened, and had nothing to say. She took his arm, which he offered her, holding up the weight of her satin train with the other hand. She looked down, noticing the black line of his leg moving in and out so close to her against the yellow shimmer of her gown. There was the whistle of a railway train somewhere in the distance, and the midnight bells were ringing. They met no one in their short walk.\r\n\r\nThe \u201cpigeon house\u201d stood behind a locked gate, and a shallow parterre<\/em>[footnote](French) Garden.[\/footnote] that had been somewhat neglected. There was a small front porch, upon which a long window and the front door opened. The door opened directly into the parlor; there was no side entry. Back in the yard was a room for servants, in which old Celestine had been ensconced.\r\n\r\nEdna had left a lamp burning low upon the table. She had succeeded in making the room look habitable and homelike. There were some books on the table and a lounge near at hand. On the floor was a fresh matting, covered with a rug or two; and on the walls hung a few tasteful pictures. But the room was filled with flowers. These were a surprise to her. Arobin had sent them, and had had Celestine distribute them during Edna's absence. Her bedroom was adjoining, and across a small passage were the dining-room and kitchen.\r\n\r\nEdna seated herself with every appearance of discomfort.\r\n\r\n\u201cAre you tired?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, and chilled, and miserable. I feel as if I had been wound up to a certain pitch\u2014too tight\u2014and something inside of me had snapped.\u201d She rested her head against the table upon her bare arm.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou want to rest,\u201d he said, \u201cand to be quiet. I'll go; I'll leave you and let you rest.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes,\u201d she replied.\r\n\r\nHe stood up beside her and smoothed her hair with his soft, magnetic hand. His touch conveyed to her a certain physical comfort. She could have fallen quietly asleep there if he had continued to pass his hand over her hair. He brushed the hair upward from the nape of her neck.\r\n\r\n\u201cI hope you will feel better and happier in the morning,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have tried to do too much in the past few days. The dinner was the last straw; you might have dispensed with it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes,\u201d she admitted; \u201cit was stupid.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo, it was delightful; but it has worn you out.\u201d His hand had strayed to her beautiful shoulders, and he could feel the response of her flesh to his touch. He seated himself beside her and kissed her lightly upon the shoulder.\r\n\r\n\u201cI thought you were going away,\u201d she said, in an uneven voice.\r\n\r\n\u201cI am, after I have said good night.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cGood night,\u201d she murmured.\r\n\r\nHe did not answer, except to continue to caress her. He did not say good night until she had become supple to his gentle, seductive entreaties.\r\n
                                                              \r\n

                                                              Chapter XXXI Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                              \r\n
                                                                \r\n \t
                                                              1. Who is Celestine?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                              2. When does Alc\u00e9e leave the pigeon house?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                                Chapter XXXII<\/h1>\r\nWhen Mr. Pontellier learned of his wife's intention to abandon her home and take up her residence elsewhere, he immediately wrote her a letter of unqualified disapproval and remonstrance. She had given reasons which he was unwilling to acknowledge as adequate. He hoped she had not acted upon her rash impulse; and he begged her to consider first, foremost, and above all else, what people would say. He was not dreaming of scandal when he uttered this warning; that was a thing which would never have entered into his mind to consider in connection with his wife's name or his own. He was simply thinking of his financial integrity. It might get noised about that the Pontelliers had met with reverses, and were forced to conduct their m\u00e9nage[footnote](French) Household.[\/footnote]<\/em> on a humbler scale than heretofore. It might do incalculable mischief to his business prospects.\r\n\r\nBut remembering Edna's whimsical turn of mind of late, and foreseeing that she had immediately acted upon her impetuous determination, he grasped the situation with his usual promptness and handled it with his well-known business tact and cleverness.\r\n\r\nThe same mail which brought to Edna his letter of disapproval carried instructions\u2014the most minute instructions\u2014to a well-known architect concerning the remodeling of his home, changes which he had long contemplated, and which he desired carried forward during his temporary absence.\r\n\r\nExpert and reliable packers and movers were engaged to convey the furniture, carpets, pictures\u2014everything movable, in short\u2014to places of security. And in an incredibly short time the Pontellier house was turned over to the artisans. There was to be an addition\u2014a small snuggery; there was to be frescoing, and hardwood flooring was to be put into such rooms as had not yet been subjected to this improvement.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, in one of the daily papers appeared a brief notice to the effect that Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier were contemplating a summer sojourn abroad, and that their handsome residence on Esplanade Street was undergoing sumptuous alterations, and would not be ready for occupancy until their return. Mr. Pontellier had saved appearances!\r\n\r\nEdna admired the skill of his maneuver, and avoided any occasion to balk his intentions. When the situation as set forth by Mr. Pontellier was accepted and taken for granted, she was apparently satisfied that it should be so.\r\n\r\nThe pigeon house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm which it reflected like a warm glow. There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to \u201cfeed upon opinion\u201d when her own soul had invited her.\r\n\r\nAfter a little while, a few days, in fact, Edna went up and spent a week with her children in Iberville. They were delicious February days, with all the summer's promise hovering in the air.\r\n\r\nHow glad she was to see the children! She wept for very pleasure when she felt their little arms clasping her; their hard, ruddy cheeks pressed against her own glowing cheeks. She looked into their faces with hungry eyes that could not be satisfied with looking. And what stories they had to tell their mother! About the pigs, the cows, the mules! About riding to the mill behind Gluglu; fishing back in the lake with their Uncle Jasper; picking pecans with Lidie's little black brood, and hauling chips in their express wagon. It was a thousand times more fun to haul real chips for old lame Susie's real fire than to drag painted blocks along the banquette on Esplanade Street!\r\n\r\nShe went with them herself to see the pigs and the cows, to look at the darkies laying the cane, to thrash the pecan trees, and catch fish in the back lake. She lived with them a whole week long, giving them all of herself, and gathering and filling herself with their young existence. They listened, breathless, when she told them the house in Esplanade Street was crowded with workmen, hammering, nailing, sawing, and filling the place with clatter. They wanted to know where their bed was; what had been done with their rocking-horse; and where did Joe sleep, and where had Ellen gone, and the cook? But, above all, they were fired with a desire to see the little house around the block. Was there any place to play? Were there any boys next door? Raoul, with pessimistic foreboding, was convinced that there were only girls next door. Where would they sleep, and where would papa sleep? She told them the fairies would fix it all right.\r\n\r\nThe old Madame was charmed with Edna's visit, and showered all manner of delicate attentions upon her. She was delighted to know that the Esplanade Street house was in a dismantled condition. It gave her the promise and pretext to keep the children indefinitely.\r\n\r\nIt was with a wrench and a pang that Edna left her children. She carried away with her the sound of their voices and the touch of their cheeks. All along the journey homeward their presence lingered with her like the memory of a delicious song. But by the time she had regained the city the song no longer echoed in her soul. She was again alone.\r\n
                                                                \r\n

                                                                Chapter XXXII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                                \r\n
                                                                  \r\n \t
                                                                1. What does L\u00e9once worry might happen if Edna moves into her pigeon house?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                                  Chapter XXXIII<\/h1>\r\nIt happened sometimes when Edna went to see Mademoiselle Reisz that the little musician was absent, giving a lesson or making some small necessary household purchase. The key was always left in a secret hiding-place in the entry, which Edna knew. If Mademoiselle happened to be away, Edna would usually enter and wait for her return.\r\n\r\nWhen she knocked at Mademoiselle Reisz's door one afternoon there was no response; so unlocking the door, as usual, she entered and found the apartment deserted, as she had expected. Her day had been quite filled up, and it was for a rest, for a refuge, and to talk about Robert, that she sought out her friend.\r\n\r\nShe had worked at her canvas\u2014a young Italian character study\u2014all the morning, completing the work without the model; but there had been many interruptions, some incident to her modest housekeeping, and others of a social nature.\r\n\r\nMadame Ratignolle had dragged herself over, avoiding the too public thoroughfares, she said. She complained that Edna had neglected her much of late. Besides, she was consumed with curiosity to see the little house and the manner in which it was conducted. She wanted to hear all about the dinner party; Monsieur Ratignolle had left so early. What had happened after he left? The champagne and grapes which Edna sent over were too<\/em> delicious. She had so little appetite; they had refreshed and toned her stomach. Where on earth was she going to put Mr. Pontellier in that little house, and the boys? And then she made Edna promise to go to her when her hour of trial overtook her.\r\n\r\n\u201cAt any time\u2014any time of the day or night, dear,\u201d Edna assured her.\r\n\r\nBefore leaving Madame Ratignolle said:\r\n\r\n\u201cIn some way you seem to me like a child, Edna. You seem to act without a certain amount of reflection which is necessary in this life. That is the reason I want to say you mustn't mind if I advise you to be a little careful while you are living here alone. Why don't you have someone come and stay with you? Wouldn't Mademoiselle Reisz come?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; she wouldn't wish to come, and I shouldn't want her always with me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, the reason\u2014you know how evil-minded the world is\u2014someone was talking of Alc\u00e9e Arobin visiting you. Of course, it wouldn't matter if Mr. Arobin had not such a dreadful reputation. Monsieur Ratignolle was telling me that his attentions alone are considered enough to ruin a woman's name.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDoes he boast of his successes?\u201d asked Edna, indifferently, squinting at her picture.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo, I think not. I believe he is a decent fellow as far as that goes. But his character is so well known among the men. I shan't be able to come back and see you; it was very, very imprudent to-day.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cMind the step!\u201d cried Edna.\r\n\r\n\u201cDon't neglect me,\u201d entreated Madame Ratignolle; \u201cand don't mind what I said about Arobin, or having someone to stay with you.\r\n\r\n\u201cOf course not,\u201d Edna laughed. \u201cYou may say anything you like to me.\u201d They kissed each other good-bye. Madame Ratignolle had not far to go, and Edna stood on the porch a while watching her walk down the street.\r\n\r\nThen in the afternoon Mrs. Merriman and Mrs. Highcamp had made their \u201cparty call.\u201d Edna felt that they might have dispensed with the formality. They had also come to invite her to play vingt-et-un[footnote]( French) Twenty-one, a card game.[\/footnote]<\/em> one evening at Mrs. Merriman's. She was asked to go early, to dinner, and Mr. Merriman or Mr. Arobin would take her home. Edna accepted in a half-hearted way. She sometimes felt very tired of Mrs. Highcamp and Mrs. Merriman.\r\n\r\nLate in the afternoon she sought refuge with Mademoiselle Reisz, and stayed there alone, waiting for her, feeling a kind of repose invade her with the very atmosphere of the shabby, unpretentious little room.\r\n\r\nEdna sat at the window, which looked out over the house-tops and across the river. The window frame was filled with pots of flowers, and she sat and picked the dry leaves from a rose geranium. The day was warm, and the breeze which blew from the river was very pleasant. She removed her hat and laid it on the piano. She went on picking the leaves and digging around the plants with her hat pin. Once she thought she heard Mademoiselle Reisz approaching. But it was a young black girl, who came in, bringing a small bundle of laundry, which she deposited in the adjoining room, and went away.\r\n\r\nEdna seated herself at the piano, and softly picked out with one hand the bars of a piece of music which lay open before her. A half-hour went by. There was the occasional sound of people going and coming in the lower hall. She was growing interested in her occupation of picking out the aria, when there was a second rap at the door. She vaguely wondered what these people did when they found Mademoiselle's door locked.\r\n\r\n\u201cCome in,\u201d she called, turning her face toward the door. And this time it was Robert Lebrun who presented himself. She attempted to rise; she could not have done so without betraying the agitation which mastered her at sight of him, so she fell back upon the stool, only exclaiming, \u201cWhy, Robert!\u201d\r\n\r\nHe came and clasped her hand, seemingly without knowing what he was saying or doing.\r\n\r\n\u201cMrs. Pontellier! How do you happen\u2014oh! how well you look! Is Mademoiselle Reisz not here? I never expected to see you.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen did you come back?\u201d asked Edna in an unsteady voice, wiping her face with her handkerchief. She seemed ill at ease on the piano stool, and he begged her to take the chair by the window.\r\n\r\nShe did so, mechanically, while he seated himself on the stool.\r\n\r\n\u201cI returned day before yesterday,\u201d he answered, while he leaned his arm on the keys, bringing forth a crash of discordant sound.\r\n\r\n\u201cDay before yesterday!\u201d she repeated, aloud; and went on thinking to herself, \u201cday before yesterday,\u201d in a sort of an uncomprehending way. She had pictured him seeking her at the very first hour, and he had lived under the same sky since day before yesterday; while only by accident had he stumbled upon her. Mademoiselle must have lied when she said, \u201cPoor fool, he loves you.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDay before yesterday,\u201d she repeated, breaking off a spray of Mademoiselle's geranium; \u201cthen if you had not met me here to-day you wouldn't\u2014when\u2014that is, didn't you mean to come and see me?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOf course, I should have gone to see you. There have been so many things\u2014\u201d he turned the leaves of Mademoiselle's music nervously. \u201cI started in at once yesterday with the old firm. After all there is as much chance for me here as there was there\u2014that is, I might find it profitable some day. The Mexicans were not very congenial.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo he had come back because the Mexicans were not congenial; because business was as profitable here as there; because of any reason, and not because he cared to be near her. She remembered the day she sat on the floor, turning the pages of his letter, seeking the reason which was left untold.\r\n\r\nShe had not noticed how he looked\u2014only feeling his presence; but she turned deliberately and observed him. After all, he had been absent but a few months, and was not changed. His hair\u2014the color of hers\u2014waved back from his temples in the same way as before. His skin was not more burned than it had been at Grand Isle. She found in his eyes, when he looked at her for one silent moment, the same tender caress, with an added warmth and entreaty which had not been there before the same glance which had penetrated to the sleeping places of her soul and awakened them.\r\n\r\nA hundred times Edna had pictured Robert's return, and imagined their first meeting. It was usually at her home, whither he had sought her out at once. She always fancied him expressing or betraying in some way his love for her. And here, the reality was that they sat ten feet apart, she at the window, crushing geranium leaves in her hand and smelling them, he twirling around on the piano stool, saying:\r\n\r\n\u201cI was very much surprised to hear of Mr. Pontellier's absence; it's a wonder Mademoiselle Reisz did not tell me; and your moving\u2014mother told me yesterday. I should think you would have gone to New York with him, or to Iberville with the children, rather than be bothered here with housekeeping. And you are going abroad, too, I hear. We shan't have you at Grand Isle next summer; it won't seem\u2014do you see much of Mademoiselle Reisz? She often spoke of you in the few letters she wrote.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDo you remember that you promised to write to me when you went away?\u201d A flush overspread his whole face.\r\n\r\n\u201cI couldn't believe that my letters would be of any interest to you.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThat is an excuse; it isn't the truth.\u201d Edna reached for her hat on the piano. She adjusted it, sticking the hat pin through the heavy coil of hair with some deliberation.\r\n\r\n\u201cAre you not going to wait for Mademoiselle Reisz?\u201d asked Robert.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; I have found when she is absent this long, she is liable not to come back till late.\u201d She drew on her gloves, and Robert picked up his hat.\r\n\r\n\u201cWon't you wait for her?\u201d asked Edna.\r\n\r\n\u201cNot if you think she will not be back till late,\u201d adding, as if suddenly aware of some discourtesy in his speech, \u201cand I should miss the pleasure of walking home with you.\u201d Edna locked the door and put the key back in its hiding-place.\r\n\r\nThey went together, picking their way across muddy streets and sidewalks encumbered with the cheap display of small tradesmen. Part of the distance they rode in the car, and after disembarking, passed the Pontellier mansion, which looked broken and half torn asunder. Robert had never known the house, and looked at it with interest.\r\n\r\n\u201cI never knew you in your home,\u201d he remarked.\r\n\r\n\u201cI am glad you did not.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy?\u201d She did not answer. They went on around the corner, and it seemed as if her dreams were coming true after all, when he followed her into the little house.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou must stay and dine with me, Robert. You see I am all alone, and it is so long since I have seen you. There is so much I want to ask you.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe took off her hat and gloves. He stood irresolute, making some excuse about his mother who expected him; he even muttered something about an engagement. She struck a match and lit the lamp on the table; it was growing dusk. When he saw her face in the lamp-light, looking pained, with all the soft lines gone out of it, he threw his hat aside and seated himself.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! you know I want to stay if you will let me!\u201d he exclaimed. All the softness came back. She laughed, and went and put her hand on his shoulder.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis is the first moment you have seemed like the old Robert. I'll go tell Celestine.\u201d She hurried away to tell Celestine to set an extra place. She even sent her off in search of some added delicacy which she had not thought of for herself. And she recommended great care in dripping the coffee and having the omelet done to a proper turn.\r\n\r\nWhen she reentered, Robert was turning over magazines, sketches, and things that lay upon the table in great disorder. He picked up a photograph, and exclaimed:\r\n\r\n\u201cAlc\u00e9e Arobin! What on earth is his picture doing here?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI tried to make a sketch of his head one day,\u201d answered Edna, \u201cand he thought the photograph might help me. It was at the other house. I thought it had been left there. I must have packed it up with my drawing materials.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI should think you would give it back to him if you have finished with it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! I have a great many such photographs. I never think of returning them. They don't amount to anything.\u201d Robert kept on looking at the picture.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt seems to me\u2014do you think his head worth drawing? Is he a friend of Mr. Pontellier's? You never said you knew him.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cHe isn't a friend of Mr. Pontellier's; he's a friend of mine. I always knew him\u2014that is, it is only of late that I know him pretty well. But I'd rather talk about you, and know what you have been seeing and doing and feeling out there in Mexico.\u201d Robert threw aside the picture.\r\n\r\n\u201cI've been seeing the waves and the white beach of Grand Isle; the quiet, grassy street of the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re<\/em>; the old fort at Grande Terre. I've been working like a machine, and feeling like a lost soul. There was nothing interesting.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe leaned her head upon her hand to shade her eyes from the light.\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd what have you been seeing and doing and feeling all these days?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cI've been seeing the waves and the white beach of Grand Isle; the quiet, grassy street of the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re Caminada<\/em>; the old sunny fort at Grande Terre. I've been working with a little more comprehension than a machine, and still feeling like a lost soul. There was nothing interesting.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cMrs. Pontellier, you are cruel,\u201d he said, with feeling, closing his eyes and resting his head back in his chair. They remained in silence till old Celestine announced dinner.\r\n
                                                                  \r\n

                                                                  Chapter XXXIII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                                  \r\n
                                                                    \r\n \t
                                                                  1. What warning does Ad\u00e8le give to Edna when she visits her at the pigeon house?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                                    Chapter XXXIV<\/h1>\r\nThe dining-room was very small. Edna's round mahogany would have almost filled it. As it was there was but a step or two from the little table to the kitchen, to the mantel, the small buffet, and the side door that opened out on the narrow brick-paved yard.\r\n\r\nA certain degree of ceremony settled upon them with the announcement of dinner. There was no return to personalities. Robert related incidents of his sojourn in Mexico, and Edna talked of events likely to interest him, which had occurred during his absence. The dinner was of ordinary quality, except for the few delicacies which she had sent out to purchase. Old Celestine, with a bandana tignon<\/em>[footnote]A turban fashioned from a scarf.[\/footnote] twisted about her head, hobbled in and out, taking a personal interest in everything; and she lingered occasionally to talk patois[footnote]A dialect of French mixed with Spanish, English spoken by the descendants of the Acadians.[\/footnote] with Robert, whom she had known as a boy.\r\n\r\nHe went out to a neighboring cigar stand to purchase cigarette papers, and when he came back he found that Celestine had served the black coffee in the parlor.\r\n\r\n\u201cPerhaps I shouldn't have come back,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you are tired of me, tell me to go.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou never tire me. You must have forgotten the hours and hours at Grand Isle in which we grew accustomed to each other and used to being together.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI have forgotten nothing at Grand Isle,\u201d he said, not looking at her, but rolling a cigarette. His tobacco pouch, which he laid upon the table, was a fantastic embroidered silk affair, evidently the handiwork of a woman.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou used to carry your tobacco in a rubber pouch,\u201d said Edna, picking up the pouch and examining the needlework.\r\n\r\n\u201cYes; it was lost.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere did you buy this one? In Mexico?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was given to me by a Vera Cruz girl; they are very generous,\u201d he replied, striking a match and lighting his cigarette.\r\n\r\n\u201cThey are very handsome, I suppose, those Mexican women; very picturesque, with their black eyes and their lace scarfs.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cSome are; others are hideous, just as you find women everywhere.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat was she like\u2014the one who gave you the pouch? You must have known her very well.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cShe was very ordinary. She wasn't of the slightest importance. I knew her well enough.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDid you visit at her house? Was it interesting? I should like to know and hear about the people you met, and the impressions they made on you.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThere are some people who leave impressions not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWas she such a one?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt would be ungenerous for me to admit that she was of that order and kind.\u201d He thrust the pouch back in his pocket, as if to put away the subject with the trifle which had brought it up.\r\n\r\nArobin dropped in with a message from Mrs. Merriman, to say that the card party was postponed on account of the illness of one of her children.\r\n\r\n\u201cHow do you do, Arobin?\u201d said Robert, rising from the obscurity.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! Lebrun. To be sure! I heard yesterday you were back. How did they treat you down in Mexique?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cFairly well.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut not well enough to keep you there. Stunning girls, though, in Mexico. I thought I should never get away from Vera Cruz when I was down there a couple of years ago.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDid they embroider slippers and tobacco pouches and hat-bands and things for you?\u201d asked Edna.\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! my! no! I didn't get so deep in their regard. I fear they made more impression on me than I made on them.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou were less fortunate than Robert, then.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI am always less fortunate than Robert. Has he been imparting tender confidences?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI've been imposing myself long enough,\u201d said Robert, rising, and shaking hands with Edna. \u201cPlease convey my regards to Mr. Pontellier when you write.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe shook hands with Arobin and went away.\r\n\r\n\u201cFine fellow, that Lebrun,\u201d said Arobin when Robert had gone. \u201cI never heard you speak of him.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI knew him last summer at Grand Isle,\u201d she replied. \u201cHere is that photograph of yours. Don't you want it?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat do I want with it? Throw it away.\u201d She threw it back on the table.\r\n\r\n\u201cI'm not going to Mrs. Merriman's,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you see her, tell her so. But perhaps I had better write. I think I shall write now, and say that I am sorry her child is sick, and tell her not to count on me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt would be a good scheme,\u201d acquiesced Arobin. \u201cI don't blame you; stupid lot!\u201d\r\n\r\nEdna opened the blotter, and having procured paper and pen, began to write the note. Arobin lit a cigar and read the evening paper, which he had in his pocket.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat is the date?\u201d she asked. He told her.\r\n\r\n\u201cWill you mail this for me when you go out?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cCertainly.\u201d He read to her little bits out of the newspaper, while she straightened things on the table.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat do you want to do?\u201d he asked, throwing aside the paper. \u201cDo you want to go out for a walk or a drive or anything? It would be a fine night to drive.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; I don't want to do anything but just be quiet. You go away and amuse yourself. Don't stay.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI'll go away if I must; but I shan't amuse myself. You know that I only live when I am near you.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe stood up to bid her good night.\r\n\r\n\u201cIs that one of the things you always say to women?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI have said it before, but I don't think I ever came so near meaning it,\u201d he answered with a smile. There were no warm lights in her eyes; only a dreamy, absent look.\r\n\r\n\u201cGood night. I adore you. Sleep well,\u201d he said, and he kissed her hand and went away.\r\n\r\nShe stayed alone in a kind of reverie\u2014a sort of stupor. Step by step she lived over every instant of the time she had been with Robert after he had entered Mademoiselle Reisz's door. She recalled his words, his looks. How few and meager they had been for her hungry heart! A vision\u2014a transcendently seductive vision of a Mexican girl arose before her. She writhed with a jealous pang. She wondered when he would come back. He had not said he would come back. She had been with him, had heard his voice and touched his hand. But some way he had seemed nearer to her off there in Mexico.\r\n
                                                                    \r\n

                                                                    Chapter XXXIV Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                                    \r\n
                                                                      \r\n \t
                                                                    1. Why is Edna interested in the Vera Cruz woman who gave Robert the tobacco pouch?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                                    2. What effect does the arrival of Alc\u00e9e have upon Robert?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                                      Chapter XXXV<\/h1>\r\nThe morning was full of sunlight and hope. Edna could see before her no denial\u2014only the promise of excessive joy. She lay in bed awake, with bright eyes full of speculation. \u201cHe loves you, poor fool.\u201d If she could but get that conviction firmly fixed in her mind, what mattered about the rest? She felt she had been childish and unwise the night before in giving herself over to despondency. She recapitulated the motives which no doubt explained Robert's reserve. They were not insurmountable; they would not hold if he really loved her; they could not hold against her own passion, which he must come to realize in time. She pictured him going to his business that morning. She even saw how he was dressed; how he walked down one street, and turned the corner of another; saw him bending over his desk, talking to people who entered the office, going to his lunch, and perhaps watching for her on the street. He would come to her in the afternoon or evening, sit and roll his cigarette, talk a little, and go away as he had done the night before. But how delicious it would be to have him there with her! She would have no regrets, nor seek to penetrate his reserve if he still chose to wear it.\r\n\r\nEdna ate her breakfast only half dressed. The maid brought her a delicious printed scrawl from Raoul, expressing his love, asking her to send him some bonbons, and telling her they had found that morning ten tiny white pigs all lying in a row beside Lidie's big white pig.\r\n\r\nA letter also came from her husband, saying he hoped to be back early in March, and then they would get ready for that journey abroad which he had promised her so long, which he felt now fully able to afford; he felt able to travel as people should, without any thought of small economies\u2014thanks to his recent speculations in Wall Street.\r\n\r\nMuch to her surprise she received a note from Arobin, written at midnight from the club. It was to say good morning to her, to hope she had slept well, to assure her of his devotion, which he trusted she in some faintest manner returned.\r\n\r\nAll these letters were pleasing to her. She answered the children in a cheerful frame of mind, promising them bonbons, and congratulating them upon their happy find of the little pigs.\r\n\r\nShe answered her husband with friendly evasiveness,\u2014not with any fixed design to mislead him, only because all sense of reality had gone out of her life; she had abandoned herself to Fate, and awaited the consequences with indifference.\r\n\r\nTo Arobin's note she made no reply. She put it under Celestine's stove-lid.\r\n\r\nEdna worked several hours with much spirit. She saw no one but a picture dealer, who asked her if it were true that she was going abroad to study in Paris.\r\n\r\nShe said possibly she might, and he negotiated with her for some Parisian studies to reach him in time for the holiday trade in December.\r\n\r\nRobert did not come that day. She was keenly disappointed. He did not come the following day, nor the next. Each morning she awoke with hope, and each night she was a prey to despondency. She was tempted to seek him out. But far from yielding to the impulse, she avoided any occasion which might throw her in his way. She did not go to Mademoiselle Reisz's nor pass by Madame Lebrun's, as she might have done if he had still been in Mexico.\r\n\r\nWhen Arobin, one night, urged her to drive with him, she went\u2014out to the lake, on the Shell Road. His horses were full of mettle, and even a little unmanageable. She liked the rapid gait at which they spun along, and the quick, sharp sound of the horses' hoofs on the hard road. They did not stop anywhere to eat or to drink. Arobin was not needlessly imprudent. But they ate and they drank when they regained Edna's little dining-room\u2014which was comparatively early in the evening.\r\n\r\nIt was late when he left her. It was getting to be more than a passing whim with Arobin to see her and be with her. He had detected the latent sensuality, which unfolded under his delicate sense of her nature's requirements like a torpid, torrid, sensitive blossom.\r\n\r\nThere was no despondency when she fell asleep that night; nor was there hope when she awoke in the morning.\r\n
                                                                      \r\n

                                                                      Chapter XXXV Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                                      \r\n
                                                                        \r\n \t
                                                                      1. What, if anything, is happening between Robert and Edna?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                                        Chapter XXXVI<\/h1>\r\nThere was a garden out in the suburbs; a small, leafy corner, with a few green tables under the orange trees. An old cat slept all day on the stone step in the sun, and an old mulatresse<\/em>[footnote](French) Mulatto woman of mixed black and white ancestry.[\/footnote] slept her idle hours away in her chair at the open window, till someone happened to knock on one of the green tables. She had milk and cream cheese to sell, and bread and butter. There was no one who could make such excellent coffee or fry a chicken so golden brown as she.\r\n\r\nThe place was too modest to attract the attention of people of fashion, and so quiet as to have escaped the notice of those in search of pleasure and dissipation. Edna had discovered it accidentally one day when the high-board gate stood ajar. She caught sight of a little green table, blotched with the checkered sunlight that filtered through the quivering leaves overhead. Within she had found the slumbering mulatresse<\/em>, the drowsy cat, and a glass of milk which reminded her of the milk she had tasted in Iberville.\r\n\r\nShe often stopped there during her perambulations; sometimes taking a book with her, and sitting an hour or two under the trees when she found the place deserted. Once or twice she took a quiet dinner there alone, having instructed Celestine beforehand to prepare no dinner at home. It was the last place in the city where she would have expected to meet any one she knew.\r\n\r\nStill she was not astonished when, as she was partaking of a modest dinner late in the afternoon, looking into an open book, stroking the cat, which had made friends with her\u2014she was not greatly astonished to see Robert come in at the tall garden gate.\r\n\r\n\u201cI am destined to see you only by accident,\u201d she said, shoving the cat off the chair beside her. He was surprised, ill at ease, almost embarrassed at meeting her thus so unexpectedly.\r\n\r\n\u201cDo you come here often?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cI almost live here,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\n\u201cI used to drop in very often for a cup of Catiche's good coffee. This is the first time since I came back.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cShe'll bring you a plate, and you will share my dinner. There's always enough for two\u2014even three.\u201d Edna had intended to be indifferent and as reserved as he when she met him; she had reached the determination by a laborious train of reasoning, incident to one of her despondent moods. But her resolve melted when she saw him before designing Providence had led him into her path.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy have you kept away from me, Robert?\u201d she asked, closing the book that lay open upon the table.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy are you so personal, Mrs. Pontellier? Why do you force me to idiotic subterfuges?\u201d he exclaimed with sudden warmth. \u201cI suppose there's no use telling you I've been very busy, or that I've been sick, or that I've been to see you and not found you at home. Please let me off with any one of these excuses.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou are the embodiment of selfishness,\u201d she said. \u201cYou save yourself something\u2014I don't know what\u2014but there is some selfish motive, and in sparing yourself you never consider for a moment what I think, or how I feel your neglect and indifference. I suppose this is what you would call unwomanly; but I have got into a habit of expressing myself. It doesn't matter to me, and you may think me unwomanly if you like.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo; I only think you cruel, as I said the other day. Maybe not intentionally cruel; but you seem to be forcing me into disclosures which can result in nothing; as if you would have me bare a wound for the pleasure of looking at it, without the intention or power of healing it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI'm spoiling your dinner, Robert; never mind what I say. You haven't eaten a morsel.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI only came in for a cup of coffee.\u201d His sensitive face was all disfigured with excitement.\r\n\r\n\u201cIsn't this a delightful place?\u201d she remarked. \u201cI am so glad it has never actually been discovered. It is so quiet, so sweet, here. Do you notice there is scarcely a sound to be heard? It's so out of the way; and a good walk from the car. However, I don't mind walking. I always feel so sorry for women who don't like to walk; they miss so much\u2014so many rare little glimpses of life; and we women learn so little of life on the whole.\r\n\r\n\u201cCatiche's coffee is always hot. I don't know how she manages it, here in the open air. Celestine's coffee gets cold bringing it from the kitchen to the dining-room. Three lumps! How can you drink it so sweet? Take some of the cress with your chop; it's so biting and crisp. Then there's the advantage of being able to smoke with your coffee out here. Now, in the city\u2014aren't you going to smoke?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAfter a while,\u201d he said, laying a cigar on the table.\r\n\r\n\u201cWho gave it to you?\u201d she laughed.\r\n\r\n\u201cI bought it. I suppose I'm getting reckless; I bought a whole box.\u201d She was determined not to be personal again and make him uncomfortable.\r\n\r\nThe cat made friends with him, and climbed into his lap when he smoked his cigar. He stroked her silky fur, and talked a little about her. He looked at Edna's book, which he had read; and he told her the end, to save her the trouble of wading through it, he said.\r\n\r\nAgain he accompanied her back to her home; and it was after dusk when they reached the little \u201cpigeon-house.\u201d She did not ask him to remain, which he was grateful for, as it permitted him to stay without the discomfort of blundering through an excuse which he had no intention of considering. He helped her to light the lamp; then she went into her room to take off her hat and to bathe her face and hands.\r\n\r\nWhen she came back Robert was not examining the pictures and magazines as before; he sat off in the shadow, leaning his head back on the chair as if in a reverie. Edna lingered a moment beside the table, arranging the books there. Then she went across the room to where he sat. She bent over the arm of his chair and called his name.\r\n\r\n\u201cRobert,\u201d she said, \u201care you asleep?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo,\u201d he answered, looking up at her.\r\n\r\nShe leaned over and kissed him\u2014a soft, cool, delicate kiss, whose voluptuous sting penetrated his whole being\u2014then she moved away from him. He followed, and took her in his arms, just holding her close to him. She put her hand up to his face and pressed his cheek against her own. The action was full of love and tenderness. He sought her lips again. Then he drew her down upon the sofa beside him and held her hand in both of his.\r\n\r\n\u201cNow you know,\u201d he said, \u201cnow you know what I have been fighting against since last summer at Grand Isle; what drove me away and drove me back again.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy have you been fighting against it?\u201d she asked. Her face glowed with soft lights.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy? Because you were not free; you were L\u00e9once Pontellier's wife. I couldn't help loving you if you were ten times his wife; but so long as I went away from you and kept away I could help telling you so.\u201d She put her free hand up to his shoulder, and then against his cheek, rubbing it softly. He kissed her again. His face was warm and flushed.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere in Mexico I was thinking of you all the time, and longing for you.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut not writing to me,\u201d she interrupted.\r\n\r\n\u201cSomething put into my head that you cared for me; and I lost my senses. I forgot everything but a wild dream of your some way becoming my wife.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYour wife!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cReligion, loyalty, everything would give way if only you cared.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThen you must have forgotten that I was L\u00e9once Pontellier's wife.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh! I was demented, dreaming of wild, impossible things, recalling men who had set their wives free, we have heard of such things.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, we have heard of such things.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI came back full of vague, mad intentions. And when I got here\u2014\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen you got here you never came near me!\u201d She was still caressing his cheek.\r\n\r\n\u201cI realized what a cur I was to dream of such a thing, even if you had been willing.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe took his face between her hands and looked into it as if she would never withdraw her eyes more. She kissed him on the forehead, the eyes, the cheeks, and the lips.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier's possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, 'Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,' I should laugh at you both.\u201d\r\n\r\nHis face grew a little white. \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d he asked.\r\n\r\nThere was a knock at the door. Old Celestine came in to say that Madame Ratignolle's servant had come around the back way with a message that Madame had been taken sick and begged Mrs. Pontellier to go to her immediately.\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, yes,\u201d said Edna, rising; \u201cI promised. Tell her yes\u2014to wait for me. I'll go back with her.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cLet me walk over with you,\u201d offered Robert.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo,\u201d she said; \u201cI will go with the servant.\u201d She went into her room to put on her hat, and when she came in again she sat once more upon the sofa beside him. He had not stirred. She put her arms about his neck.\r\n\r\n\u201cGood-bye, my sweet Robert. Tell me good-bye.\u201d He kissed her with a degree of passion which had not before entered into his caress, and strained her to him.\r\n\r\n\u201cI love you,\u201d she whispered, \u201conly you; no one but you. It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream. Oh! you have made me so unhappy with your indifference. Oh! I have suffered, suffered! Now you are here we shall love each other, my Robert. We shall be everything to each other. Nothing else in the world is of any consequence. I must go to my friend; but you will wait for me? No matter how late; you will wait for me, Robert?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDon't go; don't go! Oh! Edna, stay with me,\u201d he pleaded. \u201cWhy should you go? Stay with me, stay with me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI shall come back as soon as I can; I shall find you here.\u201d She buried her face in his neck, and said good-bye again. Her seductive voice, together with his great love for her, had enthralled his senses, had deprived him of every impulse but the longing to hold her and keep her.\r\n
                                                                        \r\n

                                                                        Chapter XXXVI Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                                        \r\n
                                                                          \r\n \t
                                                                        1. What does Robert reveal to Edna at the pigeon house?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                                        2. What does Edna mean when she says that L\u00e9once could not set her free?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                                          Chapter XXXVII<\/h1>\r\nEdna looked in at the drug store. Monsieur Ratignolle was putting up a mixture himself, very carefully, dropping a red liquid into a tiny glass. He was grateful to Edna for having come; her presence would be a comfort to his wife. Madame Ratignolle's sister, who had always been with her at such trying times, had not been able to come up from the plantation, and Ad\u00e8le had been inconsolable until Mrs. Pontellier so kindly promised to come to her. The nurse had been with them at night for the past week, as she lived a great distance away. And Dr. Mandelet had been coming and going all the afternoon. They were then looking for him any moment.\r\n\r\nEdna hastened upstairs by a private stairway that led from the rear of the store to the apartments above. The children were all sleeping in a back room. Madame Ratignolle was in the salon, whither she had strayed in her suffering impatience. She sat on the sofa, clad in an ample white peignoir<\/em>, holding a handkerchief tight in her hand with a nervous clutch. Her face was drawn and pinched, her sweet blue eyes haggard and unnatural. All her beautiful hair had been drawn back and plaited. It lay in a long braid on the sofa pillow, coiled like a golden serpent. The nurse, a comfortable looking Griffe[footnote]Daughter of a mulatto and a black.[\/footnote] woman in white apron and cap, was urging her to return to her bedroom.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere is no use, there is no use,\u201d she said at once to Edna. \u201cWe must get rid of Mandelet; he is getting too old and careless. He said he would be here at half-past seven; now it must be eight. See what time it is, Josephine.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe woman was possessed of a cheerful nature, and refused to take any situation too seriously, especially a situation with which she was so familiar. She urged Madame to have courage and patience. But Madame only set her teeth hard into her under lip, and Edna saw the sweat gather in beads on her white forehead. After a moment or two she uttered a profound sigh and wiped her face with the handkerchief rolled in a ball. She appeared exhausted. The nurse gave her a fresh handkerchief, sprinkled with cologne water.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis is too much!\u201d she cried. \u201cMandelet ought to be killed! Where is Alphonse? Is it possible I am to be abandoned like this\u2014neglected by every one?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNeglected, indeed!\u201d exclaimed the nurse. Wasn't she there? And here was Mrs. Pontellier leaving, no doubt, a pleasant evening at home to devote to her? And wasn't Monsieur Ratignolle coming that very instant through the hall? And Josephine was quite sure she had heard Doctor Mandelet's coup\u00e9. Yes, there it was, down at the door.\r\n\r\nAd\u00e8le consented to go back to her room. She sat on the edge of a little low couch next to her bed.\r\n\r\nDoctor Mandelet paid no attention to Madame Ratignolle's upbraidings. He was accustomed to them at such times, and was too well convinced of her loyalty to doubt it.\r\n\r\nHe was glad to see Edna, and wanted her to go with him into the salon and entertain him. But Madame Ratignolle would not consent that Edna should leave her for an instant. Between agonizing moments, she chatted a little, and said it took her mind off her sufferings.\r\n\r\nEdna began to feel uneasy. She was seized with a vague dread. Her own like experiences seemed far away, unreal, and only half remembered. She recalled faintly an ecstasy of pain, the heavy odor of chloroform, a stupor which had deadened sensation, and an awakening to find a little new life to which she had given being, added to the great unnumbered multitude of souls that come and go.\r\n\r\nShe began to wish she had not come; her presence was not necessary. She might have invented a pretext for staying away; she might even invent a pretext now for going. But Edna did not go. With an inward agony, with a flaming, outspoken revolt against the ways of Nature, she witnessed the scene of torture.\r\n\r\nShe was still stunned and speechless with emotion when later she leaned over her friend to kiss her and softly say good-bye. Ad\u00e8le, pressing her cheek, whispered in an exhausted voice: \u201cThink of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!\u201d\r\n
                                                                          \r\n

                                                                          Chapter XXXVII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                                          \r\n
                                                                            \r\n \t
                                                                          1. What does Ad\u00e8le mean when she begs Edna to \u201cthink of the children\u201d?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                                            Chapter XXXVIII<\/h1>\r\nEdna still felt dazed when she got outside in the open air. The Doctor's coup\u00e9 had returned for him and stood before the porte coch\u00e8re<\/em>. She did not wish to enter the coup\u00e9, and told Doctor Mandelet she would walk; she was not afraid, and would go alone. He directed his carriage to meet him at Mrs. Pontellier's, and he started to walk home with her.\r\n\r\nUp\u2014away up, over the narrow street between the tall houses, the stars were blazing. The air was mild and caressing, but cool with the breath of spring and the night. They walked slowly, the Doctor with a heavy, measured tread and his hands behind him; Edna, in an absent-minded way, as she had walked one night at Grand Isle, as if her thoughts had gone ahead of her and she was striving to overtake them.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou shouldn't have been there, Mrs. Pontellier,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was no place for you. Ad\u00e8le is full of whims at such times. There were a dozen women she might have had with her, unimpressionable women. I felt that it was cruel, cruel. You shouldn't have gone.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOh, well!\u201d she answered, indifferently. \u201cI don't know that it matters after all. One has to think of the children some time or other; the sooner the better.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen is L\u00e9once coming back?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cQuite soon. Some time in March.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd you are going abroad?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cPerhaps\u2014no, I am not going. I'm not going to be forced into doing things. I don't want to go abroad. I want to be let alone. Nobody has any right\u2014except children, perhaps\u2014and even then, it seems to me\u2014or it did seem\u2014\u201d She felt that her speech was voicing the incoherency of her thoughts, and stopped abruptly.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe trouble is,\u201d sighed the Doctor, grasping her meaning intuitively, \u201cthat youth is given up to illusions. It seems to be a provision of Nature; a decoy to secure mothers for the race. And Nature takes no account of moral consequences, of arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged to maintain at any cost.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes,\u201d she said. \u201cThe years that are gone seem like dreams\u2014if one might go on sleeping and dreaming\u2014but to wake up and find\u2014oh! well! perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt seems to me, my dear child,\u201d said the Doctor at parting, holding her hand, \u201cyou seem to me to be in trouble. I am not going to ask for your confidence. I will only say that if ever you feel moved to give it to me, perhaps I might help you. I know I would understand. And I tell you there are not many who would\u2014not many, my dear.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cSome way I don't feel moved to speak of things that trouble me. Don't think I am ungrateful or that I don't appreciate your sympathy. There are periods of despondency and suffering which take possession of me. But I don't want anything but my own way. That is wanting a good deal, of course, when you have to trample upon the lives, the hearts, the prejudices of others\u2014but no matter\u2014still, I shouldn't want to trample upon the little lives. Oh! I don't know what I'm saying, Doctor. Good night. Don't blame me for anything.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, I will blame you if you don't come and see me soon. We will talk of things you never have dreamt of talking about before. It will do us both good. I don't want you to blame yourself, whatever comes. Good night, my child.\u201d\r\n\r\nShe let herself in at the gate, but instead of entering she sat upon the step of the porch. The night was quiet and soothing. All the tearing emotion of the last few hours seemed to fall away from her like a somber, uncomfortable garment, which she had but to loosen to be rid of. She went back to that hour before Ad\u00e8le had sent for her; and her senses kindled afresh in thinking of Robert's words, the pressure of his arms, and the feeling of his lips upon her own. She could picture at that moment no greater bliss on earth than possession of the beloved one. His expression of love had already given him to her in part. When she thought that he was there at hand, waiting for her, she grew numb with the intoxication of expectancy. It was so late; he would be asleep perhaps. She would awaken him with a kiss. She hoped he would be asleep that she might arouse him with her caresses.\r\n\r\nStill, she remembered Ad\u00e8le's voice whispering, \u201cThink of the children; think of them.\u201d She meant to think of them; that determination had driven into her soul like a death wound\u2014but not to-night. To-morrow would be time to think of everything.\r\n\r\nRobert was not waiting for her in the little parlor. He was nowhere at hand. The house was empty. But he had scrawled on a piece of paper that lay in the lamplight:\r\n\r\n\u201cI love you. Good-bye\u2014because I love you.\u201d\r\n\r\nEdna grew faint when she read the words. She went and sat on the sofa. Then she stretched herself out there, never uttering a sound. She did not sleep. She did not go to bed. The lamp sputtered and went out. She was still awake in the morning, when Celestine unlocked the kitchen door and came in to light the fire.\r\n
                                                                            \r\n

                                                                            Chapter XXXVIII Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                                            \r\n
                                                                              \r\n \t
                                                                            1. In her talk with Dr. Mandelet, what does Edna mean by \u201cbeing a dupe to illusions\u201d?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                                            2. Why does Robert leave his note? What does the note mean; that is, why does Robert feel he must leave Edna at this time?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                                              Chapter XXXIX<\/h1>\r\nVictor, with hammer and nails and scraps of scantling[footnote]Timber.[\/footnote], was patching a corner of one of the galleries. Mariequita sat near by, dangling her legs, watching him work, and handing him nails from the tool-box. The sun was beating down upon them. The girl had covered her head with her apron folded into a square pad. They had been talking for an hour or more. She was never tired of hearing Victor describe the dinner at Mrs. Pontellier's. He exaggerated every detail, making it appear a veritable Lucullean[footnote]Lavish, luxurious; a variant of Lucullan, after the Roman military leader and administrator Lucius Lucullus (c. 117-56 B.C.), famous for his extravagant feasts.[\/footnote] feast. The flowers were in tubs, he said. The champagne was quaffed from huge golden goblets. Venus rising from the foam could have presented no more entrancing a spectacle than Mrs. Pontellier, blazing with beauty and diamonds at the head of the board, while the other women were all of them youthful houris, possessed of incomparable charms. She got it into her head that Victor was in love with Mrs. Pontellier, and he gave her evasive answers, framed so as to confirm her belief. She grew sullen and cried a little, threatening to go off and leave him to his fine ladies. There were a dozen men crazy about her at the Ch\u00eani\u00e8re<\/em>; and since it was the fashion to be in love with married people, why, she could run away any time she liked to New Orleans with Celina's husband.\r\n\r\nCelina's husband was a fool, a coward, and a pig, and to prove it to her, Victor intended to hammer his head into a jelly the next time he encountered him. This assurance was very consoling to Mariequita. She dried her eyes, and grew cheerful at the prospect.\r\n\r\nThey were still talking of the dinner and the allurements of city life when Mrs. Pontellier herself slipped around the corner of the house. The two youngsters stayed dumb with amazement before what they considered to be an apparition. But it was really she in flesh and blood, looking tired and a little travel-stained.\r\n\r\n\u201cI walked up from the wharf,\u201d she said, \u201cand heard the hammering. I supposed it was you, mending the porch. It's a good thing. I was always tripping over those loose planks last summer. How dreary and deserted everything looks!\u201d\r\n\r\nIt took Victor some little time to comprehend that she had come in Beaudelet's lugger, that she had come alone, and for no purpose but to rest.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere's nothing fixed up yet, you see. I'll give you my room; it's the only place.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAny corner will do,\u201d she assured him.\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd if you can stand Philomel's cooking,\u201d he went on, \u201cthough I might try to get her mother while you are here. Do you think she would come?\u201d turning to Mariequita.\r\n\r\nMariequita thought that perhaps Philomel's mother might come for a few days, and money enough.\r\n\r\nBeholding Mrs. Pontellier make her appearance, the girl had at once suspected a lovers' rendezvous. But Victor's astonishment was so genuine, and Mrs. Pontellier's indifference so apparent, that the disturbing notion did not lodge long in her brain. She contemplated with the greatest interest this woman who gave the most sumptuous dinners in America, and who had all the men in New Orleans at her feet.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat time will you have dinner?\u201d asked Edna. \u201cI'm very hungry; but don't get anything extra.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI'll have it ready in little or no time,\u201d he said, bustling and packing away his tools. \u201cYou may go to my room to brush up and rest yourself. Mariequita will show you.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThank you,\u201d said Edna. \u201cBut, do you know, I have a notion to go down to the beach and take a good wash and even a little swim, before dinner?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThe water is too cold!\u201d they both exclaimed. \u201cDon't think of it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, I might go down and try\u2014dip my toes in. Why, it seems to me the sun is hot enough to have warmed the very depths of the ocean. Could you get me a couple of towels? I'd better go right away, so as to be back in time. It would be a little too chilly if I waited till this afternoon.\u201d\r\n\r\nMariequita ran over to Victor's room, and returned with some towels, which she gave to Edna.\r\n\r\n\u201cI hope you have fish for dinner,\u201d said Edna, as she started to walk away; \u201cbut don't do anything extra if you haven't.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cRun and find Philomel's mother,\u201d Victor instructed the girl. \u201cI'll go to the kitchen and see what I can do. By Gimminy! Women have no consideration! She might have sent me word.\u201d\r\n\r\nEdna walked on down to the beach rather mechanically, not noticing anything special except that the sun was hot. She was not dwelling upon any particular train of thought. She had done all the thinking which was necessary after Robert went away, when she lay awake upon the sofa till morning.\r\n\r\nShe had said over and over to herself: \u201cTo-day it is Arobin; to-morrow it will be someone else. It makes no difference to me, it doesn't matter about L\u00e9once Pontellier\u2014but Raoul and Etienne!\u201d She understood now clearly what she had meant long ago when she said to Ad\u00e8le Ratignolle that she would give up the unessential, but she would never sacrifice herself for her children.\r\n\r\nDespondency had come upon her there in the wakeful night, and had never lifted. There was no one thing in the world that she desired. There was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert; and she even realized that the day would come when he, too, and the thought of him would melt out of her existence, leaving her alone. The children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul's slavery for the rest of her days. But she knew a way to elude them. She was not thinking of these things when she walked down to the beach.\r\n\r\nThe water of the Gulf stretched out before her, gleaming with the million lights of the sun. The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude. All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight. A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water.\r\n\r\nEdna had found her old bathing suit still hanging, faded, upon its accustomed peg.\r\n\r\nShe put it on, leaving her clothing in the bath-house. But when she was there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, pricking garments from her, and for the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her.\r\n\r\nHow strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! how delicious! She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known.\r\n\r\nThe foamy wavelets curled up to her white feet, and coiled like serpents about her ankles. She walked out. The water was chill, but she walked on. The water was deep, but she lifted her white body and reached out with a long, sweeping stroke. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.\r\n\r\nShe went on and on. She remembered the night she swam far out, and recalled the terror that seized her at the fear of being unable to regain the shore. She did not look back now, but went on and on, thinking of the blue-grass meadow that she had traversed when a little child, believing that it had no beginning and no end.\r\n\r\nHer arms and legs were growing tired.\r\n\r\nShe thought of L\u00e9once and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul. How Mademoiselle Reisz would have laughed, perhaps sneered, if she knew! \u201cAnd you call yourself an artist! What pretensions, Madame! The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies.\u201d\r\n\r\nExhaustion was pressing upon and overpowering her.\r\n\r\n\u201cGood-bye\u2014because I love you.\u201d He did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand. Perhaps Doctor Mandelet would have understood if she had seen him\u2014but it was too late; the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone.\r\n\r\nShe looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father's voice and her sister Margaret's. She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to the sycamore tree. The spurs of the cavalry officer clanged as he walked across the porch. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air.\r\n
                                                                              \r\n

                                                                              Chapter XXXIX Study Questions<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

                                                                              \r\n
                                                                                \r\n \t
                                                                              1. What is the setting for the last chapter? Why is it appropriate?<\/li>\r\n \t
                                                                              2. Is Victor\u2019s understanding of Edna accurate? What impediments are there to Edna\u2019s freedom now? Would you call her death a suicide? What is suggested by Edna\u2019s removal of all clothing as she starts to swim from shore?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

                                                                                Review by Willa Cather<\/h1>\r\nChopin was strongly influenced by French literature. Willa Cather was the first to compare \u201cThe Awakening\u201d to Flaubert\u2019s \u201cMadame Bovary,\u201d calling it \u201cThe American Bovary\u201d. Find points of similarity. Cather\u2019s 1899 review of \u201cThe Awakening\u201d<\/a> is reprinted in The Awakening<\/em>, Norton Critical, 3rd ed.,\u00a0 Margo Culley, pp. 188\u2013191. She considers Chopin\u2019s novel a pale imitation of Bovary. Do you agree? Here is the first part of Cather\u2019s review. You will find the rest in Culley.\r\n\r\nCather was a young critic in her mid-twenties when she wrote this July 1899 review for\u00a0The Pittsburgh Leader <\/em>(8 July 1899, p. 6.).\r\n

                                                                                A Creole \u201cBovary\u201d<\/h2>\r\nA Creole \u201cBovary\u201d is this little novel of Miss Chopin\u2019s. Not that the heroine is a Creole exactly, or that Miss Chopin is a Flaubert \u2014 but the theme is similar to that which occupied Flaubert.\r\n\r\nThere was, indeed, no need that a second Madame Bovary<\/em> should be written, but an author\u2019s choice of themes is frequently as inexplicable as his choice of a wife. It is governed by some innate temperamental bias that cannot be diagrammed.\r\n\r\nThis is particularly so in women who write, and I shall not attempt to say why Miss Chopin has devoted so exquisite and sensitive, well-governed a style to so trite and sordid a theme.\r\n\r\nShe writes much better than it is ever given to most people to write, and hers is a genuinely literary style; of no great elegance or solidity; but light, flexible, subtle and capable of producing telling effects directly and simply. The story she has to tell in the present instance is new neither in matter nor treatment.\r\n\r\nEdna Pontellier, a Kentucky girl, who, like Emma Bovary, had been in love with innumerable dream heroes before she was out of short skirts, married L\u00e9once Pontellier as a sort of reaction from a vague and visionary passion for a tragedian whose unresponsive picture she used to kiss.\r\n\r\nShe acquired the habit of liking her husband in time, and even of liking her children. Though we are not justified in presuming that she ever threw articles from her dressing table at them, as the charming \u201cEmma\u201d had a winsome habit of doing, we are told that \u201cshe would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart, she would sometimes forget them\u2026.\u201d\r\n

                                                                                Additional Resources<\/h1>\r\nYou may wish to view the interesting documentary from Louisiana Public Broadcasting: Kate Chopin: A Reawakening<\/a><\/em>.\r\n\r\nAnd here is a useful study guide to The Awakening <\/em>[PDF]<\/a> from Penguin publishers.\r\n

                                                                                Text Attributions<\/h3>\r\n