{"id":94,"date":"2021-05-18T10:58:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T14:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/awakening\/?post_type=chapter&p=94"},"modified":"2022-02-01T11:18:04","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T16:18:04","slug":"17","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/chapter\/17\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter XVII","rendered":"Chapter XVII"},"content":{"raw":"The Pontelliers possessed a very charming home on Esplanade Street 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\u2019s reception day\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\u2019clock, 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\u2019d understand by this time that people don\u2019t do such things; we\u2019ve got to observe les convenances<\/i> 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\u2019s strange that woman hasn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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\u2019 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\u2019s callers, reading some of them aloud, with comments as he read.\r\n\r\n\u201c\u2018The Misses Delasidas.\u2019 I worked a big deal in futures for their father this morning; nice girls; it\u2019s time they were getting married. \u2018Mrs. Belthrop.\u2019 I tell you what it is, Edna; you can\u2019t 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\u2019d better write her a note. \u2018Mrs. James Highcamp.\u2019 Hugh! the less you have to do with Mrs. Highcamp, the better. \u2018Madame Laforc\u00e9.\u2019 Came all the way from Carrolton, too, poor old soul. \u2018Miss Wiggs,\u2019 \u2018Mrs. Eleanor Boltons.\u2019\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\u2019m not making any fuss over it. But it\u2019s just such seeming trifles that we\u2019ve 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\u2019t look after the clerks in my office, just let them run things their own way; they\u2019d 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\u2019m 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\u2019am,\u201d insisted the young woman, picking up bits of the broken vase that were scattered upon the carpet. \u201cAnd here\u2019s your ring, ma\u2019am, under the chair.\u201d\r\n\r\nEdna held out her hand, and taking the ring, slipped it upon her finger.","rendered":"

The Pontelliers possessed a very charming home on Esplanade Street 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.<\/p>\n

Mr. 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.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday afternoons\u2014Tuesday being Mrs. Pontellier\u2019s reception day\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.<\/p>\n

This 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.<\/p>\n

Mr. Pontellier left his home in the mornings between nine and ten o\u2019clock, and rarely returned before half-past six or seven in the evening\u2014dinner being served at half-past seven.<\/p>\n

He 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.<\/p>\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.<\/p>\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<\/p>\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<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing. I simply felt like going out, and I went out.\u201d<\/p>\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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I left no excuse. I told Joe to say I was out, that was all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, my dear, I should think you\u2019d understand by this time that people don\u2019t do such things; we\u2019ve got to observe les convenances<\/i> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis soup is really impossible; it\u2019s strange that woman hasn\u2019t learned yet to make a decent soup. Any free-lunch stand in town serves a better one. Was Mrs. Belthrop here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBring the tray with the cards, Joe. I don\u2019t remember who was here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boy retired and returned after a moment, bringing the tiny silver tray, which was covered with ladies\u2019 visiting cards. He handed it to Mrs. Pontellier.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive it to Mr. Pontellier,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Joe offered the tray to Mr. Pontellier, and removed the soup.<\/p>\n

Mr. Pontellier scanned the names of his wife\u2019s callers, reading some of them aloud, with comments as he read.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The Misses Delasidas.\u2019 I worked a big deal in futures for their father this morning; nice girls; it\u2019s time they were getting married. \u2018Mrs. Belthrop.\u2019 I tell you what it is, Edna; you can\u2019t 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\u2019d better write her a note. \u2018Mrs. James Highcamp.\u2019 Hugh! the less you have to do with Mrs. Highcamp, the better. \u2018Madame Laforc\u00e9.\u2019 Came all the way from Carrolton, too, poor old soul. \u2018Miss Wiggs,\u2019 \u2018Mrs. Eleanor Boltons.\u2019\u201d He pushed the cards aside.<\/p>\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<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not making any fuss over it. But it\u2019s just such seeming trifles that we\u2019ve got to take seriously; such things count.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 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.<\/p>\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<\/p>\n

\u201cYou used to think the cook was a treasure,\u201d returned Edna, indifferently.<\/p>\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\u2019t look after the clerks in my office, just let them run things their own way; they\u2019d soon make a nice mess of me and my business.\u201d<\/p>\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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

She 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.<\/p>\n

But 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.<\/p>\n

It 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.<\/p>\n

In 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.<\/p>\n

A maid, alarmed at the din of breaking glass, entered the room to discover what was the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cA vase fell upon the hearth,\u201d said Edna. \u201cNever mind; leave it till morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh! you might get some of the glass in your feet, ma\u2019am,\u201d insisted the young woman, picking up bits of the broken vase that were scattered upon the carpet. \u201cAnd here\u2019s your ring, ma\u2019am, under the chair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edna held out her hand, and taking the ring, slipped it upon her finger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":17,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-94","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/94\/revisions\/213"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/94\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/awakening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}