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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library-Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton


65

about Mattie’s going-” “That so?” said Jotham indifferently; and
they went on with their work.

When they returned to the kitchen the two women were already at
breakfast.

Zeena had an air of unusual alertness and activity. She drank two
cups of coffee and fed the cat with the scraps left in the pie-dish;
then she rose from her seat and, walking over to the window,
snipped two or three yellow leaves from the geraniums. “Aunt
Martha’s ain’t got a faded leaf on ‘em; but they pine away when
they ain’t cared for,” she said reflectively. Then she turned to
Jotham and asked: “What time’d you say Dan’l Byrne’d be along?”
The hired man threw a hesitating glance at Ethan.

“Round about noon,” he said.
Zeena turned to Mattie. “That trunk of yours is too heavy for the
sleigh, and Dan’l Byrne’ll be round to take it over to the Flats,” she
said.

“I’m much obliged to you, Zeena,” said Mattie.
“I’d like to go over things with you first,” Zeena continued in an
unperturbed voice. “I know there’s a huckabuck towel missing;
and I can’t take out what you done with that match-safe ‘t used to
stand behind the stuffed owl in the parlour.” She went out,
followed by Mattie, and when the men were alone Jotham said to
his employer: “I guess I better let Dan’l come round, then.”

Ethan finished his usual morning tasks about the house and barn;
then he said to Jotham: “I’m going down to Starkfield. Tell them
not to wait dinner.” The passion of rebellion had broken out in him
again. That which had seemed incredible in the sober light of day
had really come to pass, and he was to assist as a helpless spectator
at Mattie’s banishment. His manhood was humbled by the part he
was compelled to play and by the thought of what Mattie must
think of him. Confused impulses struggled in him as he strode
along to the village. He had made up his mind to do something,
but he did not know what it would be.

The early mist had vanished and the fields lay like a silver shield
under the sun. It was one of the days when the glitter of winter
shines through a pale haze of spring. Every yard of the road was
alive with Mattie’s presence, and there was hardly a branch against
the sky or a tangle of brambles on the bank in which some bright
shred of memory was not caught. Once, in the stillness, the call of a
bird in a mountain ash was so like her laughter that his heart
tightened and then grew large; and all these things made him see
that something must be done at once.

Suddenly it occurred to him that Andrew Hale, who was a kind-
hearted man, might be induced to reconsider his refusal and
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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library-Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton



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