Summary: Chapter XXXVI
One day Edna bumps into Robert in her favorite garden
café, which is nestled in the suburbs of New Orleans. Robert reacts
with uneasiness and surprise at the unexpected encounter but consents
to stay and dine with Edna. Although Edna had decided to act with
reserve if she were to see Robert, she cannot help but be plain
and honest with him. She expresses her disappointment at his own
seeming indifference, telling him he is selfish and inconsiderate
of her emotions. She emphasizes that she is not afraid to share
her opinions, however “unwomanly” he may think them. He responds
by accusing her of cruelty, of wishing him to “bare a wound for
the pleasure of looking at it, without the intention or power of
healing it.” Retreating from his display of anger, Edna returns
to pleasantries and thoughtless banter.
The two go to the pigeon house, arriving after dark. When
she returns to the room after leaving to wash up, Edna leans over
Robert as he sits in a chair, and kisses him. In response, he takes
her into his arms and holds her, kissing her back. He confesses
that his trip to Mexico was an attempt to escape his love for her.
In Mexico, he says, he fantasized that she could become his wife,
that perhaps Léonce would “set her free.” Edna declares that the
fantasy is reality, because she is no longer one of Léonce’s possessions
and will give herself to whomever she pleases. Robert is shocked,
perhaps even dismayed, by her announcement.
Edna’s servant interrupts to tell Edna that Adèle is in
labor and wants Edna to be with her. Edna leaves, assuring Robert
that she loves only him and that they shall soon “be everything
to each other.” He begs her to stay, able to think only of holding
and keeping her, but she tells him to wait because she will return.
Summary: Chapter XXXVII
Adèle is irritable and exhausted as she awaits
the arrival of the doctor. Edna begins to feel uneasy as memories
of her own childbirth experiences surface but seem removed, vague,
and undefined. Although she stays by her friend’s side, she desperately
wants to leave. She watches the scene of “torture” with a feeling
of “inward agony” and a “flaming, outspoken revolt against the ways
of Nature.” When the ordeal is over, Edna kisses Adèle good-bye,
as Adèle whispers earnestly, “Think of the children, Edna. Oh think
of the children!”
Summary: Chapter XXXVIII
“Perhaps it is better to wake up after
all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all
one’s life.”
See Important Quotations Explained
Doctor Mandelet, who is also Adèle’s doctor,
walks Edna to the pigeon house. He voices his concern that another,
less impressionable, woman ought to have stayed with Adèle. He asks
Edna if she will go abroad with Léonce, and Edna replies that she
will not and that she refuses to be forced into anything anymore.
She begins to say that no one has any right to oblige her to do
what she does not wish, excepting, perhaps, children. Although Edna
trails off incoherently, the doctor grasps her underlying mindset.
He notes sympathetically that youth is given to illusions and that
he sees sexual passion as Nature’s “decoy” to secure mothers for
the propagation of children. Dr. Mandelet adds that the passions
given to us by Nature are on a level removed from moral considerations.
Before parting, Doctor Mandelet tells Edna that she seems to be
in trouble, and that if she would ever like to come to him for help, he
would be a most understanding confidant. Edna responds that although
she is sometimes upset, she does not like to speak of her despondency.
She explains that she simply wants her own way, although she acknowledges
the difficulty of this, especially when it means she must “trample
upon the lives, the hearts, the prejudices of others.” She asks
the doctor not to blame her for anything, and he leaves, replying
that he will blame her if she does not come to speak with him but
that she should not blame herself, “whatever comes.”
Edna sits on her porch, brooding over Adèle’s final words,
and vowing to think of her children the following day, after her
rendezvous with Robert. To her dismay, Robert has left, and there
is a note that reads, “I love you. Good-by—because I love you,”
in his place. Edna stretches out on the parlor sofa and lies awake
all night.
