CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The Pontelliers had a nice home in New Orleans. It was very large and painted entirely in white, except for the windows, which were green. All around the home were plants and flowers of almost every kind that could be found in the state of Louisiana. The house was decorated in a very traditional way. All of the furniture had been chosen very carefully. Many of Mrs Pontellier's female guests envied the fact that her husband was so willing to spend his money on making the home so nice and comfortable. They always complained that their husbands were cheap and did not care for the home as much.

It was true, actually, that Mr Pontellier cared very much for his home. He loved to walk around the house and look at all of the things that he could say were his own. He felt proud of having so much.

In the afternoon, every Tuesday, Mrs Pontellier opened her doors to anyone who might want to visit her. People came either by carriage or car, and sometimes if the weather was nice enough, they even walked to her home. The Pontelliers had a young, black servant boy greet the guests at the door and take their cards. Once they entered the home, another servant would be there to offer them food and drink.

For the six years she had been married, Edna kept the same schedule. On other days of the week she and her husband would go to the theatre to see a play or hear some music. They would leave the house at around seven o'clock in the evenings, because Mr Pontellier never returned home from work earlier than six or six thirty.

Not long after they had returned to the city, the Pontellier couple found themselves in their home without any guests on a Tuesday evening. Mr Pontellier noticed that his wife had not even bothered to wear her usual Tuesday dress. She was wearing clothing that was not at all special. While accepting a bowl of soup from one of his servants, Mr Pontellier asked his wife how her day had been.

"Did a lot of people come to see you?" he asked.

"Yes. It seems that quite a lot of people did come by. At least, that's what the servants told me. I wasn't here all day," she answered while tasting her soup.

"You weren't here? But it's Tuesday! What did you leave the house for?"

"I just wanted to, so I did."

"You must have left a note for everyone who came by, telling them the reason you were not there."

"No, I just had our servant boy tell them I was not at home today. That was all," she said without seeming to care.

"But you can't do such things, honey. You and I are a part of the highest society. We are expected to entertain guests every week. If for some reason we can't do that, it is our responsibility to let people know why!" Mr Pontellier explained with a look of surprise on his face. "Ah! The soup tastes terrible! Why can't our cook make something delicious? Don't we pay her enough? I swear, you can get better food in the poor areas of town!"

Mrs Pontellier then asked the servant boy to bring the cards of the people who had come to the house that day. When he returned with them, she asked him to show them to her husband.

Mr Pontellier took the cards from the boy and asked that the soup be taken away. Once the boy was gone, he began to read the names of the people aloud.

"Oh! The two Delasida girls came over. I do a lot of business with their father. Pretty little girls, actually. Ah, and Mrs Belthrop too! She's an important one, dear. Her husband helps me to make quite a lot of money every year. Maybe you should send her a letter to apologize or something." He read several other names and made the same kinds of comments about each one.

All this time, Edna had been getting increasingly angry. "Goodness! Why are these cards so important to you?"

"I know that it's a small thing, but we need to be nice to these people. It could cause problems for us later on if we're not."

Mr Pontellier ended up being unsatisfied with the entire meal. The fish had been cooked too long and he disagreed with the way the vegetables had been put on the tray. "What is wrong with our cook? Are we actually expected to eat this?"

Edna, who thought the food was fine, only said, "Up until now, you've always loved our cook."

"Well, I suppose she's just like everyone else and needs to be watched a little more carefully. You know, I have to keep a close eye on my workers at the office. If I didn't, they'd all get lazy and the business would just fall apart."

He then stood up without having actually tasted anything but the soup.

"What are you doing?" asked Edna.

"If I can't get something to eat here, I guess that I'll just have to go to the club to have dinner. Have a good evening."

He then walked into the hallway and out the front door without saying another word.

This was not the first time that Mr Pontellier had walked out during dinner. It always upset Edna and made her feel guilty. She was a housewife. It was her responsibility to make sure that the servants were doing their jobs. One time, she felt so bad that she spent the entire week studying cookbooks and planning every meal very carefully in order to make sure Mr Pontellier would be happy. This night, however, a different feeling came over her. She felt angry. She went to her bedroom and told her servants to tell anyone who came by the house that she was not available.

In her room, Edna stood by the window and looked out into the darkness that hid all of her plants and flowers from view. She listened to the sounds coming from outside and felt as though all of the spirits were gathering about her and speaking to her. But the things she heard did not make her feel better. The spirits sounded sad and hopeless. Turning away from the window, she then walked about the large room, tearing a piece of cloth that she had been carrying around with her. At one point, she took off her wedding ring, threw it on the ground, and tried to destroy it under her foot. The ring, however, looked untouched afterward. No damage had been done at all.

Not satisfied, she grabbed a vase of flowers and threw it across the room. It broke into hundreds of pieces against the fireplace. That helped her to feel a little better.

One of the servants, after hearing the glass break, knocked at the bedroom door.

"It's alright!" Edna shouted. "I just dropped something. Wait until tomorrow to clean it."

The door opened a little and the concerned face of a servant appeared from around it. "I can't leave it there all night, ma'am. You or Mr Pontellier might hurt yourself. Oh, and here's your ring. It was underneath the table there."

Mrs Pontellier took the ring from the servant and placed it back on her finger.

(end of section)