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Later that night, Little Chandler waits for his wife, Annie, to come home from the local store. Little Chandler had forgotten to bring home coffee in his flurry of excitement about Gallaher and an irritated Annie decided to do the errand herself. Before she left, she deposited their sleeping son in Little Chandler’s arms and told him not to wake the baby. He gazes at a picture of Annie wearing a blue blouse that he bought her as he holds their son. He recalls how embarrassed he had been in the women’s clothing store and how pleased Annie had been when he gifted it to her. He then remembers how her glee morphed into anger when she learned how much he had spent. She did, however, kiss him and decide to keep the blouse after she tried it on. Thinking about Annie causes Little Chandler to recount his conversation with Gallaher. Unlike Gallaher’s exotic, passionate mistresses, his wife appears cold and unfeeling, though pretty. He grows increasingly uneasy the longer he looks at the picture. He feels that Annie’s picture makes her look “mean,” “unconscious,” and “unladylike.”
Little Chandler begins to question his marriage and its trappings: a “little” house and a child. Carefully, so as not to wake his son, Little Chandler begins reading a passage of Byron. This stirs his longings to write and he wonders if he could ever have the nerve to leave Dublin and pursue a career in London or another foreign city and live “bravely” like Gallaher. He feels that if could just write a book of poems and get it published that he could live the life that he has always wanted. Lost in his reverie, he accidentally wakes his son. No matter what Little Chandler says or does, he can not get his son to stop screaming and fall back asleep. Annie returns home as Little Chandler is pacing up and down the room in a vain attempt to soothe their child. Annie becomes frustrated and snatches the screaming baby from her husband’s arms. As she does so, she scolds her husband for failing to do the single task that she had assigned him. Little Chandler feels remorse for his rebellious thoughts and wallows in his own shame as Annie murmurs to their son.
