There was some hauling to be done at the lower end of the wood-lot, and
Ethan was out early the next day.

The winter morning was as clear as crystal. The sunrise burned red in a
pure sky, the shadows on the rim of the wood-lot were darkly blue, and
beyond the white and scintillating fields patches of far-off forest hung
like smoke.

It was in the early morning stillness, when his muscles were swinging
to their familiar task and his lungs expanding with long draughts of
mountain air, that Ethan did his clearest thinking. He and Zeena had not
exchanged a word after the door of their room had closed on them. She
had measured out some drops from a medicine-bottle on a chair by the bed
and, after swallowing them, and wrapping her head in a piece of yellow
flannel, had lain down with her face turned away. Ethan undressed
hurriedly and blew out the light so that he should not see her when he
took his place at her side. As he lay there he could hear Mattie moving
about in her room, and her candle, sending its small ray across the
landing, drew a scarcely perceptible line of light under his door. He
kept his eyes fixed on the light till it vanished. Then the room grew
perfectly black, and not a sound was audible but Zeena's asthmatic
breathing. Ethan felt confusedly that there were many things he ought
to think about, but through his tingling veins and tired brain only one
sensation throbbed: the warmth of Mattie's shoulder against his. Why had
he not kissed her when he held her there? A few hours earlier he would
not have asked himself the question. Even a few minutes earlier, when
they had stood alone outside the house, he would not have dared to think
of kissing her. But since he had seen her lips in the lamplight he felt
that they were his.

Now, in the bright morning air, her face was still before him. It was
part of the sun's red and of the pure glitter on the snow. How the
girl had changed since she had come to Starkfield! He remembered what a
colourless slip of a thing she had looked the day he had met her at the
station. And all the first winter, how she had shivered with cold when
the northerly gales shook the thin clapboards and the snow beat like
hail against the loose-hung windows!

He had been afraid that she would hate the hard life, the cold and
loneliness; but not a sign of discontent escaped her. Zeena took the
view that Mattie was bound to make the best of Starkfield since she
hadn't any other place to go to; but this did not strike Ethan as
conclusive. Zeena, at any rate, did not apply the principle in her own
case.

He felt all the more sorry for the girl because misfortune had, in
a sense, indentured her to them. Mattie Silver was the daughter of
a cousin of Zenobia Frome's, who had inflamed his clan with mingled
sentiments of envy and admiration by descending from the hills to
Connecticut, where he had married a Stamford girl and succeeded to
her father's thriving "drug" business. Unhappily Orin Silver, a man of
far-reaching aims, had died too soon to prove that the end justifies the
means. His accounts revealed merely what the means had been; and these
were such that it was fortunate for his wife and daughter that his books
were examined only after his impressive funeral. His wife died of the
disclosure, and Mattie, at twenty, was left alone to make her way on the
fifty dollars obtained from the sale of her piano. For this purpose her
equipment, though varied, was inadequate. She could trim a hat, make
molasses candy, recite "Curfew shall not ring to-night," and play "The
Lost Chord" and a pot-pourri from "Carmen." When she tried to extend the
field of her activities in the direction of stenography and book-keeping
her health broke down, and six months on her feet behind the counter of
a department store did not tend to restore it. Her nearest relations had
been induced to place their savings in her father's hands, and though,
after his death, they ungrudgingly acquitted themselves of the Christian
duty of returning good for evil by giving his daughter all the advice
at their disposal, they could hardly be expected to supplement it by
material aid. But when Zenobia's doctor recommended her looking about
for some one to help her with the house-work the clan instantly saw the
chance of exacting a compensation from Mattie. Zenobia, though doubtful
of the girl's efficiency, was tempted by the freedom to find fault
without much risk of losing her; and so Mattie came to Starkfield.

Zenobia's fault-finding was of the silent kind, but not the less
penetrating for that. During the first months Ethan alternately burned
with the desire to see Mattie defy her and trembled with fear of the
result. Then the situation grew less strained. The pure air, and the
long summer hours in the open, gave back life and elasticity to Mattie,
and Zeena, with more leisure to devote to her complex ailments, grew
less watchful of the girl's omissions; so that Ethan, struggling on
under the burden of his barren farm and failing saw-mill, could at least
imagine that peace reigned in his house.

There was really, even now, no tangible evidence to the contrary; but
since the previous night a vague dread had hung on his sky-line. It was
formed of Zeena's obstinate silence, of Mattie's sudden look of warning,
of the memory of just such fleeting imperceptible signs as those which
told him, on certain stainless mornings, that before night there would
be rain.

His dread was so strong that, man-like, he sought to postpone certainty.
The hauling was not over till mid-day, and as the lumber was to be
delivered to Andrew Hale, the Starkfield builder, it was really easier
for Ethan to send Jotham Powell, the hired man, back to the farm on
foot, and drive the load down to the village himself. He had scrambled
up on the logs, and was sitting astride of them, close over his shaggy
grays, when, coming between him and their streaming necks, he had a
vision of the warning look that Mattie had given him the night before.

"If there's going to be any trouble I want to be there," was his vague
reflection, as he threw to Jotham the unexpected order to unhitch the
team and lead them back to the barn.

It was a slow trudge home through the heavy fields, and when the two
men entered the kitchen Mattie was lifting the coffee from the stove and
Zeena was already at the table. Her husband stopped short at sight of
her. Instead of her usual calico wrapper and knitted shawl she wore her
best dress of brown merino, and above her thin strands of hair, which
still preserved the tight undulations of the crimping-pins, rose a hard
perpendicular bonnet, as to which Ethan's clearest notion was that he
had to pay five dollars for it at the Bettsbridge Emporium. On the floor
beside her stood his old valise and a bandbox wrapped in newspapers.

"Why, where are you going, Zeena?" he exclaimed.

"I've got my shooting pains so bad that I'm going over to Bettsbridge
to spend the night with Aunt Martha Pierce and see that new doctor," she
answered in a matter-of-fact tone, as if she had said she was going into
the store-room to take a look at the preserves, or up to the attic to go
over the blankets.

In spite of her sedentary habits such abrupt decisions were not without
precedent in Zeena's history. Twice or thrice before she had suddenly
packed Ethan's valise and started off to Bettsbridge, or even
Springfield, to seek the advice of some new doctor, and her husband had
grown to dread these expeditions because of their cost. Zeena always
came back laden with expensive remedies, and her last visit to
Springfield had been commemorated by her paying twenty dollars for an
electric battery of which she had never been able to learn the use. But
for the moment his sense of relief was so great as to preclude all other
feelings. He had now no doubt that Zeena had spoken the truth in saying,
the night before, that she had sat up because she felt "too mean" to
sleep: her abrupt resolve to seek medical advice showed that, as usual,
she was wholly absorbed in her health.

As if expecting a protest, she continued plaintively; "If you're too
busy with the hauling I presume you can let Jotham Powell drive me over
with the sorrel in time to ketch the train at the Flats."

Her husband hardly heard what she was saying. During the winter months
there was no stage between Starkfield and Bettsbridge, and the trains
which stopped at Corbury Flats were slow and infrequent. A rapid
calculation showed Ethan that Zeena could not be back at the farm before
the following evening....

"If I'd supposed you'd 'a' made any objection to Jotham Powell's driving
me over--" she began again, as though his silence had implied refusal. On
the brink of departure she was always seized with a flux of words. "All
I know is," she continued, "I can't go on the way I am much longer.
The pains are clear away down to my ankles now, or I'd 'a' walked in to
Starkfield on my own feet, sooner'n put you out, and asked Michael Eady
to let me ride over on his wagon to the Flats, when he sends to meet the
train that brings his groceries. I'd 'a' had two hours to wait in the
station, but I'd sooner 'a' done it, even with this cold, than to have
you say--"

"Of course Jotham'll drive you over," Ethan roused himself to answer.
He became suddenly conscious that he was looking at Mattie while Zeena
talked to him, and with an effort he turned his eyes to his wife. She
sat opposite the window, and the pale light reflected from the banks of
snow made her face look more than usually drawn and bloodless, sharpened
the three parallel creases between ear and cheek, and drew querulous
lines from her thin nose to the corners of her mouth. Though she was but
seven years her husband's senior, and he was only twenty-eight, she was
already an old woman.

Ethan tried to say something befitting the occasion, but there was only
one thought in his mind: the fact that, for the first time since
Mattie had come to live with them, Zeena was to be away for a night. He
wondered if the girl were thinking of it too....

He knew that Zeena must be wondering why he did not offer to drive her
to the Flats and let Jotham Powell take the lumber to Starkfield, and
at first he could not think of a pretext for not doing so; then he said:
"I'd take you over myself, only I've got to collect the cash for the
lumber."

As soon as the words were spoken he regretted them, not only because
they were untrue--there being no prospect of his receiving cash payment
from Hale--but also because he knew from experience the imprudence of
letting Zeena think he was in funds on the eve of one of her therapeutic
excursions. At the moment, however, his one desire was to avoid the long
drive with her behind the ancient sorrel who never went out of a walk.

Zeena made no reply: she did not seem to hear what he had said. She had
already pushed her plate aside, and was measuring out a draught from a
large bottle at her elbow.

"It ain't done me a speck of good, but I guess I might as well use it
up," she remarked; adding, as she pushed the empty bottle toward Mattie:
"If you can get the taste out it'll do for pickles."

While hauling lumber early the next morning, Ethan reflects on the events of the previous night and circumstances that brought Mattie to Starkfield. Ethan went to bed, blowing out the candle before he crawled in so as to avoid looking at his wife. Under the door, he could see just a flicker of the light from Mattie's candle, all the way on the other side of the landing. He watched the light until it went out. He wished that he had kissed Mattie while they had been out on their walk. Mattie's father was Zeena's cousin. He had left the hills and traveled to Connecticut, but he died too young to make his fortune. His wife died soon after, leaving Mattie to fend for herself. She had no real skills, and the difficulties of working for a living disagreed with her health. When Zeena's doctor recommended that Zeena find a housekeeper, the family arranged to have Mattie stay at the Frome farm. Although life there has been harder than her old life in Conneticut, Mattie has been cheerful and happy. However, she has little talent for housekeeping, and her ineffectiveness vexes Zeena. When he finishes hauling the lumber, Ethan thinks about the tension in his house. He worries that trouble will come up between Mattie and Zeena, so he decides to return home rather than deliver the lumber. He arrives home to find his wife dressed for travel: she has decided to go to Bettsbridge to see a new doctor. She will spend the night with her aunt; for the first time since Mattie arrived, Mattie and Ethan are going to be in the house overnight without Zeena. Ethan, anxious to avoid a long ride with Zeena, decides to have Jotham Powell, the hired man, use the sorrel to drive Zeena to the station. Ethan will use the other horses to haul lumber.

Ethan's passion for Mattie has become more difficult to control. Although a few days ago the thought of kissing Mattie would never have occurred to him, now the desire to do so is becoming irresistible. He once contented himself with fantasies of simply being allowed to stay near her; now, he is thinking about having her physically. Zeena is only thirty-five years old, but she is prematurely an old woman. The physical descriptions of her make clear that she cannot be an object of erotic desire. Ethan is twenty-eight, and Zeena arouses no passion in him. The Frome's poverty is clear in this chapter. Mattie is destitute after the death of her parents, and she is forced to take refuge with the already-struggling Fromes. She has nowhere else to go. But Ethan's resources are stretched to the limit: when he sees Zeena in her bonnet, he cannot help but recall how much the bonnet cost. And although he is thrilled by the prospect of being alone in the house with Mattie, he fears the expensive new medicines that Zeena might buy. The fact that these three people are together in the house is not a matter of choice. Ethan was forced to return to the farm because of poverty: after his father, someone had to take care of his mother, and they lacked the funds to hire help or support Ethan's studies. Mattie is destitute, and needs the shelter and food provided by the Fromes' farm. And because of poverty, fantasies of leaving Zeena are an impossible. It would be heartless to leave Zeena, who is ailing and has no way to provide for herself. All three characters are trapped. They are bound by poverty into the same house, and the combination of the Fromes' loveless marriage and Ethan's growing passion for Mattie makes for a very dangerous situation

Ethan gets up early in the morning to do some wood hauling. The day is see-through, with a huge burning sunrise, showing glimpses of the forest in the distance. Zeena and Ethan hadn't talked last night in their bedroom, and both seemed to want to be as far away from each other in the bed as possible. In bed, Ethan had continued fantasizing about Mattie. He wishes he had kissed her. This was a new desire. When he'd seen Mattie's lips by the light of Zeena's lamp "he felt that they were his" . Ethan's head is full of Mattie's face. He thinks about how much healthier and happier she looks than when she first came to live with them. There was some doubt as to whether Mattie would be able to deal with the harsh climate, and lack of company, but she never complained. Zeena thinks Mattie doesn't complain because she knows she has nowhere else to go. Ethan thinks it's something deeper, and notes in his mind that Zeena doesn't have anywhere else to go either, and she complains all the time. Mattie father was Zeena's cousin. He recently died, leaving Mattie with nothing. After the funeral it became apparent that he had cheated many people in business, and had left his wife and daughter penniless. Mattie's mother died from the news. Mattie was about twenty then , and all she had was $50 from selling her piano, and very few skills that would interest most employers. She had tried to learn "stenography" , accounting, and clerking in a store. All of these tasks apparently made her ill. The relatives that Mattie lived closest to had been cheated by her father. While they had lots of advice for Mattie, they were no willing to help her out financially. They decided that giving her to Zeena would allow them to get their revenge on the father, and give them the feeling of a clean conscience for having done their duty to her. Zeena was happy to get Mattie, because she could criticize Mattie to her hearts content, and Mattie would have to take it. Zeena laid the criticism on thick at first. Her trick was that she did it without making a sound. Ethan wanted Mattie to tell Zeena to stuff it, but was really scared about what might happen if she did. But, summertime took care of the problem somewhat. The warmth helped restore Mattie to health, and since she could do more work, Zeena could spend more time worrying about her illness. Zeena didn't criticize Mattie as much after that. Ethan had a heavy load. Even though he worked all the time, neither the farm, nor the mill did well. At least he could worry a little less about what was going on his home now that Zeena had eased up on Mattie. But now, Ethan fears things have changed for the worse. To try to keep his mind off the fear, Ethan works extra hard. One day he thinks that there might be problems on the home front, and wants to be around if things get ugly. So he goes home and finds Mattie making coffee, and Zeena sitting at the table. Zeena is dressed for travel in a bonnet and brown-wool dress. Her packed luggage is near. When questioned by Ethan, Zeena announces that she is and is headed to Bettsbridge "to see that new doctor" . Zeena had done this a few times before, and these visits to doctors were always extremely expensive, and beyond what Ethan could afford. The doctors always gave her expensive medicines and cures, including some kind of strange twenty-dollar battery that Zeena never figured out how to use. While Zeena explains to Ethan how badly she needs to go to the doctor, Ethan calculates how long she will be gone. He reasons that there is no way she can be back to tonight. Ethan rapidly agrees to let Jotham Powell, the guy who works for him, drive Zeena. Ethan is looking at Mattie while Zeena is talking to him, but manages to tear his eyes away and face his wife. Zeena is only thirty-five to Ethan's twenty-eight, but "she already an old woman" . All Ethan can think about is having a night alone with Mattie, and he wonders if Mattie is thinking what he's thinking. He needs to give Zeena some excuse as to why Jotham is driving her instead of him. Ethan blurts out that he plans to collect some money from Andrew Hale. Andrew owes him money for wood. Hale isn't going to give Ethan any money, and he knows it. But, now Zeena will be counting on that money, and will find a way to spend it before he gets it. Zeena won't be happy to hear that the funds didn't materialize. Not seeming to pay attention to Ethan, Zeena drinks the last of some medicine she has and then tells Mattie that if she can remove the taste of the medicine from the jar, it can be used as a container for pickles.

The next morning Ethan goes out to do some hauling. In the clear morning air, he does his clearest thinking. The night before, Zeena had taken her medicine and wrapped her head and lay down facing away from Ethan without a word. Ethan had quickly undressed and blown out the light, so he could not see Zeena, but could listen to Mattie in her room. He watched the small ray of light from her room disappear, and then lay listening to Zeena's labored breathing. He wonders why he did not kiss Mattie, out in the night and snow, when he had a chance. In the bright morning air, Mattie's face is still before him. Then he remembers how she arrived the winter before--thin, colorless, shivering. He was afraid she would not withstand the hard winter, but she never complained. Zeena had pointed out that Mattie had little choice, but Ethan doesn't think so. Mattie's father was Zeena's cousin, a man with high hopes and a Stamford wife whose father had a drug business. Mattie's father took over the father-in- law's business, but never made it a success. At his death, his accounts were left in a mess, and his wife and daughter were poverty-stricken. His wife died shortly thereafter, and Mattie, at age twenty, was left an orphan. Mattie, who had very limited skills, tried bookkeeping, sales, and stenography, but her health broke down. Since her nearest relations had lost their savings by putting their cash into her father's hands, they felt no responsibility toward the daughter. As a result, Mattie came to the Frome farm to help with Zeena and the chores. From the beginning, Zeena found fault with her cousin and often complained. Ethan has hoped and feared that Mattie would one day defy Zeena. Ethan then thinks about the previous night. The scene with Denis Eady and then with Zeena has given him a feeling of foreboding and dread. Although he has planned to drive his team to town with a load of logs, he decides to stay at home. Ethan and Jotham, the hired man, go back to the house. As they enter, Ethan notices that his wife is dressed for town and has her bags packed. Ethan asks her where she going. She matter-of-factly explains that she is going to stay with her aunt in Bettsbridge and see a new doctor. She has done this before, packed off to see a new doctor, and Ethan always dreads the extra expense of the doctor and the expensive remedies. But Ethan is joyous at the prospect of spending a night alone in the house with Mattie and looks at her longingly; he wonders if she is thinking the same thing. When he turns his gaze to Zeena, it strikes him that she is already an old woman, even though she is only thirty-five and seven years older than he. Ethan tells his wife that he cannot drive her, for he must go to Hale's place to collect the cash for some lumber. He immediately regrets his words, because he knows that Zeena will want to spend the money on her illnesses. Zeena makes no reply. She goes to take the medicine she has measured out for herself at the kitchen table, even though she says it doesn't do any good. In the end, Jotham, the hired hand, drives her to the Flats.

Notes Chapter 3 is relatively short and emphasizes Ethan's thought process. He thinks about Mattie constantly, regrets that he did not kiss her the previous evening, engages in fantasy about her, and is overjoyed with the idea of Zeena being away from home for a night. He is sure, given the chance, he could be forever happy with Mattie. The chapter also gives information about Mattie's circumstances. She has come to the Fromes because she has been orphaned and is destitute. She struggles on the farm because she was not raised in the country and does not know how to do manual labor. In spite of her plight, Mattie is a happy and cheerful person. In contrast, Zeena is further developed as a mean-spirited older woman. She is portrayed as conniving, whiny, and unsympathetic to her husband's financial constraints. Her only concern is her own ailments. The chapter introduces a small element of suspense. Since Zeena is going away and Ethan will be alone with Mattie, the reader is made to wonder what will happen between them.

The next day, Ethan is out hauling wood and reflecting on the previous night's encounter with Zeena. They had gone to bed in silence and Zeena had taken her medicine. She had turned her face away from him, and he had blown out the light so that he would not see her when he lay down. Ethan thinks back to the warm touch of Mattie's shoulder against his and regrets that he did not kiss her. When she had come to Starkfield, he had expected her to hate the hard life there, but she had never seemed discontented. Zeena had ungenerously put this down to the fact that she had nowhere else to go, but Ethan reflects that Zeena does not apply this principle to herself. Mattie was the daughter of a cousin of Zeena's, Orin Silver, who had inherited from his wife a thriving drug business but had died penniless. His wife had then died of the shock, and the twenty-year-old Mattie was left alone with only fifty dollars. She had few marketable skills, and when she had tried to learn the more lucrative skills of accounting and shorthand, her health had broken down. Her family resented the fact that her father had lost the savings they had invested in his business, and gave her no financial help. When Zeena's doctor had recommended that she get help in the house, the family had pressured Mattie to accept the position. There, Mattie had regained her health, though the atmosphere between Zeena and her was at first strained, with Zeena silently critical of the girl's efforts. As time passed, however, Zeena found she had "more leisure to devote to her complex ailments," and seemed to relax somewhat. But Ethan feels uneasy; he has a sense of foreboding, prompted by Zeena's silence and Mattie's sudden look of warning. He had intended to drive the load of wood to the village for delivery to the builder, Andrew Hale, but then thinks better of it. He decides that if there is going to be trouble between the two women, he should be there, and heads back to the house. He walks in to find Mattie making coffee and Zeena sitting at the table in her best dress, with her luggage next to her. Zeena tells him that she is in such pain that she is going to the nearby town of Bettsbridge to see the new doctor there. Ethan has seen her make similar trips to see new doctors before, and they worry him because they involve his having to pay for a lot of new medicines. But this time, he is relieved, because this trip to the doctor suggests that Zeena's ailments, and not her suspicion that he is having an affair with Mattie, account for her sitting up the previous night. He calculates that Zeena could not return to the farm before the following evening, and grows excited at the prospect of being alone overnight for the first time with Mattie. Zeena asks him if he will let the farm hand, Jotham Powell, drive her to the train station, and Ethan agrees. He says he would drive her himself, but must collect payment for the wood from Andrew Hale. This is a lie, as Ethan knows there is no chance of Hale's paying so soon, but he wants to avoid spending a long journey with his wife. Ethan instantly regrets his words, as his mention of the payment will make Zeena think she can spend money freely.

. Ethan's ability to predict rain correctly, even on "stainless" mornings, tells us that his forebodings about "trouble" between Mattie and Zeena are probably as accurate. The fact that bad weather, when it occurs, is inevitable underscores the inevitability of the storm that faces Ethan and Mattie. There is irony in Ethan's hopeful interpretation of Zeena's vigil as being due to her ailments. The possibility that her waiting up has another explanation - suspicion that her husband is having an affair with Mattie - has already been introduced, and Zeena's devious nature alerts us to the fact that whatever she says or does is likely to have an ulterior motive. The irony builds in Ethan's excited reaction to Zeena's planned trip to the new doctor. He is pleased for two reasons: going away overnight is hardly the action of a suspicious wife; and he will have time alone with Mattie. He has no idea of the tragic events that Zeena's departure will set in motion.


As soon as his wife had driven off Ethan took his coat and cap from the
peg. Mattie was washing up the dishes, humming one of the dance tunes
of the night before. He said "So long, Matt," and she answered gaily "So
long, Ethan"; and that was all.

It was warm and bright in the kitchen. The sun slanted through the south
window on the girl's moving figure, on the cat dozing in a chair, and on
the geraniums brought in from the door-way, where Ethan had planted
them in the summer to "make a garden" for Mattie. He would have liked to
linger on, watching her tidy up and then settle down to her sewing; but
he wanted still more to get the hauling done and be back at the farm
before night.

All the way down to the village he continued to think of his return to
Mattie. The kitchen was a poor place, not "spruce" and shining as his
mother had kept it in his boyhood; but it was surprising what a homelike
look the mere fact of Zeena's absence gave it. And he pictured what it
would be like that evening, when he and Mattie were there after supper.
For the first time they would be alone together indoors, and they would
sit there, one on each side of the stove, like a married couple, he in
his stocking feet and smoking his pipe, she laughing and talking in that
funny way she had, which was always as new to him as if he had never
heard her before.

The sweetness of the picture, and the relief of knowing that his fears
of "trouble" with Zeena were unfounded, sent up his spirits with a rush,
and he, who was usually so silent, whistled and sang aloud as he
drove through the snowy fields. There was in him a slumbering spark of
sociability which the long Starkfield winters had not yet extinguished.
By nature grave and inarticulate, he admired recklessness and gaiety in
others and was warmed to the marrow by friendly human intercourse. At
Worcester, though he had the name of keeping to himself and not being
much of a hand at a good time, he had secretly gloried in being clapped
on the back and hailed as "Old Ethe" or "Old Stiff"; and the cessation
of such familiarities had increased the chill of his return to
Starkfield.

There the silence had deepened about him year by year. Left alone, after
his father's accident, to carry the burden of farm and mill, he had had
no time for convivial loiterings in the village; and when his mother
fell ill the loneliness of the house grew more oppressive than that
of the fields. His mother had been a talker in her day, but after her
"trouble" the sound of her voice was seldom heard, though she had not
lost the power of speech. Sometimes, in the long winter evenings, when
in desperation her son asked her why she didn't "say something," she
would lift a finger and answer: "Because I'm listening"; and on stormy
nights, when the loud wind was about the house, she would complain, if
he spoke to her: "They're talking so out there that I can't hear you."

It was only when she drew toward her last illness, and his cousin
Zenobia Pierce came over from the next valley to help him nurse her,
that human speech was heard again in the house. After the mortal silence
of his long imprisonment Zeena's volubility was music in his ears. He
felt that he might have "gone like his mother" if the sound of a new
voice had not come to steady him. Zeena seemed to understand his case
at a glance. She laughed at him for not knowing the simplest sick-bed
duties and told him to "go right along out" and leave her to see to
things. The mere fact of obeying her orders, of feeling free to go about
his business again and talk with other men, restored his shaken balance
and magnified his sense of what he owed her. Her efficiency shamed and
dazzled him. She seemed to possess by instinct all the household wisdom
that his long apprenticeship had not instilled in him. When the end came
it was she who had to tell him to hitch up and go for the undertaker,
and she thought it "funny" that he had not settled beforehand who was
to have his mother's clothes and the sewing-machine. After the funeral,
when he saw her preparing to go away, he was seized with an unreasoning
dread of being left alone on the farm; and before he knew what he was
doing he had asked her to stay there with him. He had often thought
since that it would not have happened if his mother had died in spring
instead of winter...

When they married it was agreed that, as soon as he could straighten out
the difficulties resulting from Mrs. Frome's long illness, they would
sell the farm and saw-mill and try their luck in a large town. Ethan's
love of nature did not take the form of a taste for agriculture. He had
always wanted to be an engineer, and to live in towns, where there
were lectures and big libraries and "fellows doing things." A slight
engineering job in Florida, put in his way during his period of study at
Worcester, increased his faith in his ability as well as his eagerness
to see the world; and he felt sure that, with a "smart" wife like Zeena,
it would not be long before he had made himself a place in it.

Zeena's native village was slightly larger and nearer to the railway
than Starkfield, and she had let her husband see from the first that
life on an isolated farm was not what she had expected when she married.
But purchasers were slow in coming, and while he waited for them Ethan
learned the impossibility of transplanting her. She chose to look down
on Starkfield, but she could not have lived in a place which looked
down on her. Even Bettsbridge or Shadd's Falls would not have been
sufficiently aware of her, and in the greater cities which attracted
Ethan she would have suffered a complete loss of identity. And within
a year of their marriage she developed the "sickliness" which had since
made her notable even in a community rich in pathological instances.
When she came to take care of his mother she had seemed to Ethan like
the very genius of health, but he soon saw that her skill as a nurse had
been acquired by the absorbed observation of her own symptoms.

Then she too fell silent. Perhaps it was the inevitable effect of life
on the farm, or perhaps, as she sometimes said, it was because Ethan
"never listened." The charge was not wholly unfounded. When she spoke
it was only to complain, and to complain of things not in his power to
remedy; and to check a tendency to impatient retort he had first formed
the habit of not answering her, and finally of thinking of other things
while she talked. Of late, however, since he had reasons for observing
her more closely, her silence had begun to trouble him. He recalled his
mother's growing taciturnity, and wondered if Zeena were also turning
"queer." Women did, he knew. Zeena, who had at her fingers' ends the
pathological chart of the whole region, had cited many cases of the kind
while she was nursing his mother; and he himself knew of certain lonely
farm-houses in the neighbourhood where stricken creatures pined, and
of others where sudden tragedy had come of their presence. At times,
looking at Zeena's shut face, he felt the chill of such forebodings.
At other times her silence seemed deliberately assumed to conceal
far-reaching intentions, mysterious conclusions drawn from suspicions
and resentments impossible to guess. That supposition was even more
disturbing than the other; and it was the one which had come to him the
night before, when he had seen her standing in the kitchen door.

Now her departure for Bettsbridge had once more eased his mind, and all
his thoughts were on the prospect of his evening with Mattie. Only one
thing weighed on him, and that was his having told Zeena that he was to
receive cash for the lumber. He foresaw so clearly the consequences
of this imprudence that with considerable reluctance he decided to ask
Andrew Hale for a small advance on his load.

When Ethan drove into Hale's yard the builder was just getting out of
his sleigh.

"Hello, Ethe!" he said. "This comes handy."

Andrew Hale was a ruddy man with a big gray moustache and a stubbly
double-chin unconstrained by a collar; but his scrupulously clean shirt
was always fastened by a small diamond stud. This display of opulence
was misleading, for though he did a fairly good business it was known
that his easygoing habits and the demands of his large family frequently
kept him what Starkfield called "behind." He was an old friend of
Ethan's family, and his house one of the few to which Zeena occasionally
went, drawn there by the fact that Mrs. Hale, in her youth, had done
more "doctoring" than any other woman in Starkfield, and was still a
recognised authority on symptoms and treatment.

Hale went up to the grays and patted their sweating flanks.

"Well, sir," he said, "you keep them two as if they was pets."

Ethan set about unloading the logs and when he had finished his job he
pushed open the glazed door of the shed which the builder used as his
office. Hale sat with his feet up on the stove, his back propped against
a battered desk strewn with papers: the place, like the man, was warm,
genial and untidy.

"Sit right down and thaw out," he greeted Ethan.

The latter did not know how to begin, but at length he managed to bring
out his request for an advance of fifty dollars. The blood rushed to his
thin skin under the sting of Hale's astonishment. It was the builder's
custom to pay at the end of three months, and there was no precedent
between the two men for a cash settlement.

Ethan felt that if he had pleaded an urgent need Hale might have made
shift to pay him; but pride, and an instinctive prudence, kept him from
resorting to this argument. After his father's death it had taken time
to get his head above water, and he did not want Andrew Hale, or any one
else in Starkfield, to think he was going under again. Besides, he hated
lying; if he wanted the money he wanted it, and it was nobody's business
to ask why. He therefore made his demand with the awkwardness of a proud
man who will not admit to himself that he is stooping; and he was not
much surprised at Hale's refusal.

The builder refused genially, as he did everything else: he treated the
matter as something in the nature of a practical joke, and wanted to
know if Ethan meditated buying a grand piano or adding a "cupolo" to his
house; offering, in the latter case, to give his services free of cost.

Ethan's arts were soon exhausted, and after an embarrassed pause he
wished Hale good day and opened the door of the office. As he passed out
the builder suddenly called after him: "See here--you ain't in a tight
place, are you?"

"Not a bit," Ethan's pride retorted before his reason had time to
intervene.

"Well, that's good! Because I am, a shade. Fact is, I was going to ask
you to give me a little extra time on that payment. Business is pretty
slack, to begin with, and then I'm fixing up a little house for Ned and
Ruth when they're married. I'm glad to do it for 'em, but it costs." His
look appealed to Ethan for sympathy. "The young people like things nice.
You know how it is yourself: it's not so long ago since you fixed up
your own place for Zeena."

Ethan left the grays in Hale's stable and went about some other business
in the village. As he walked away the builder's last phrase lingered in
his ears, and he reflected grimly that his seven years with Zeena seemed
to Starkfield "not so long."

The afternoon was drawing to an end, and here and there a lighted pane
spangled the cold gray dusk and made the snow look whiter. The bitter
weather had driven every one indoors and Ethan had the long rural street
to himself. Suddenly he heard the brisk play of sleigh-bells and a
cutter passed him, drawn by a free-going horse. Ethan recognised Michael
Eady's roan colt, and young Denis Eady, in a handsome new fur cap,
leaned forward and waved a greeting. "Hello, Ethe!" he shouted and spun
on.

The cutter was going in the direction of the Frome farm, and Ethan's
heart contracted as he listened to the dwindling bells. What more likely
than that Denis Eady had heard of Zeena's departure for Bettsbridge, and
was profiting by the opportunity to spend an hour with Mattie? Ethan was
ashamed of the storm of jealousy in his breast. It seemed unworthy of
the girl that his thoughts of her should be so violent.

He walked on to the church corner and entered the shade of the Varnum
spruces, where he had stood with her the night before. As he passed
into their gloom he saw an indistinct outline just ahead of him. At
his approach it melted for an instant into two separate shapes and then
conjoined again, and he heard a kiss, and a half-laughing "Oh!" provoked
by the discovery of his presence. Again the outline hastily disunited
and the Varnum gate slammed on one half while the other hurried on ahead
of him. Ethan smiled at the discomfiture he had caused. What did it
matter to Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum if they were caught kissing each
other? Everybody in Starkfield knew they were engaged. It pleased Ethan
to have surprised a pair of lovers on the spot where he and Mattie had
stood with such a thirst for each other in their hearts; but he felt a
pang at the thought that these two need not hide their happiness.

He fetched the grays from Hale's stable and started on his long climb
back to the farm. The cold was less sharp than earlier in the day and a
thick fleecy sky threatened snow for the morrow. Here and there a star
pricked through, showing behind it a deep well of blue. In an hour
or two the moon would push over the ridge behind the farm, burn a
gold-edged rent in the clouds, and then be swallowed by them. A mournful
peace hung on the fields, as though they felt the relaxing grasp of the
cold and stretched themselves in their long winter sleep.

Ethan's ears were alert for the jingle of sleigh-bells, but not a sound
broke the silence of the lonely road. As he drew near the farm he saw,
through the thin screen of larches at the gate, a light twinkling in
the house above him. "She's up in her room," he said to himself, "fixing
herself up for supper"; and he remembered Zeena's sarcastic stare when
Mattie, on the evening of her arrival, had come down to supper with
smoothed hair and a ribbon at her neck.

He passed by the graves on the knoll and turned his head to glance at
one of the older headstones, which had interested him deeply as a boy
because it bore his name.

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

ETHAN FROME AND ENDURANCE HIS WIFE,

WHO DWELLED TOGETHER IN PEACE

FOR FIFTY YEARS.

He used to think that fifty years sounded like a long time to live
together; but now it seemed to him that they might pass in a flash.
Then, with a sudden dart of irony, he wondered if, when their turn came,
the same epitaph would be written over him and Zeena.

He opened the barn-door and craned his head into the obscurity,
half-fearing to discover Denis Eady's roan colt in the stall beside
the sorrel. But the old horse was there alone, mumbling his crib with
toothless jaws, and Ethan whistled cheerfully while he bedded down the
grays and shook an extra measure of oats into their mangers. His was not
a tuneful throat--but harsh melodies burst from it as he locked the barn
and sprang up the hill to the house. He reached the kitchen-porch and
turned the door-handle; but the door did not yield to his touch.

Startled at finding it locked he rattled the handle violently; then
he reflected that Mattie was alone and that it was natural she should
barricade herself at nightfall. He stood in the darkness expecting to
hear her step. It did not come, and after vainly straining his ears he
called out in a voice that shook with joy: "Hello, Matt!"

Silence answered; but in a minute or two he caught a sound on the stairs
and saw a line of light about the door-frame, as he had seen it the
night before. So strange was the precision with which the incidents of
the previous evening were repeating themselves that he half expected,
when he heard the key turn, to see his wife before him on the threshold;
but the door opened, and Mattie faced him.

She stood just as Zeena had stood, a lifted lamp in her hand, against
the black background of the kitchen. She held the light at the same
level, and it drew out with the same distinctness her slim young throat
and the brown wrist no bigger than a child's. Then, striking upward, it
threw a lustrous fleck on her lips, edged her eyes with velvet shade,
and laid a milky whiteness above the black curve of her brows.

She wore her usual dress of darkish stuff, and there was no bow at her
neck; but through her hair she had run a streak of crimson ribbon. This
tribute to the unusual transformed and glorified her. She seemed to
Ethan taller, fuller, more womanly in shape and motion. She stood aside,
smiling silently, while he entered, and then moved away from him with
something soft and flowing in her gait. She set the lamp on the table,
and he saw that it was carefully laid for supper, with fresh dough-nuts,
stewed blueberries and his favourite pickles in a dish of gay red glass.
A bright fire glowed in the stove and the cat lay stretched before it,
watching the table with a drowsy eye.

Ethan was suffocated with the sense of well-being. He went out into the
passage to hang up his coat and pull off his wet boots. When he came
back Mattie had set the teapot on the table and the cat was rubbing
itself persuasively against her ankles.

"Why, Puss! I nearly tripped over you," she cried, the laughter
sparkling through her lashes.

Again Ethan felt a sudden twinge of jealousy. Could it be his coming
that gave her such a kindled face?

"Well, Matt, any visitors?" he threw off, stooping down carelessly to
examine the fastening of the stove.

She nodded and laughed "Yes, one," and he felt a blackness settling on
his brows.

"Who was that?" he questioned, raising himself up to slant a glance at
her beneath his scowl.

Her eyes danced with malice. "Why, Jotham Powell. He came in after he
got back, and asked for a drop of coffee before he went down home."

The blackness lifted and light flooded Ethan's brain. "That all? Well,
I hope you made out to let him have it." And after a pause he felt it
right to add: "I suppose he got Zeena over to the Flats all right?"

"Oh, yes; in plenty of time."

The name threw a chill between them, and they stood a moment looking
sideways at each other before Mattie said with a shy laugh. "I guess
it's about time for supper."

They drew their seats up to the table, and the cat, unbidden, jumped
between them into Zeena's empty chair. "Oh, Puss!" said Mattie, and they
laughed again.

Ethan, a moment earlier, had felt himself on the brink of eloquence;
but the mention of Zeena had paralysed him. Mattie seemed to feel the
contagion of his embarrassment, and sat with downcast lids, sipping her
tea, while he feigned an insatiable appetite for dough-nuts and sweet
pickles. At last, after casting about for an effective opening, he took
a long gulp of tea, cleared his throat, and said: "Looks as if there'd
be more snow."

She feigned great interest. "Is that so? Do you suppose it'll interfere
with Zeena's getting back?" She flushed red as the question escaped her,
and hastily set down the cup she was lifting.

Ethan reached over for another helping of pickles. "You never can tell,
this time of year, it drifts so bad on the Flats." The name had benumbed
him again, and once more he felt as if Zeena were in the room between
them.

"Oh, Puss, you're too greedy!" Mattie cried.

The cat, unnoticed, had crept up on muffled paws from Zeena's seat to
the table, and was stealthily elongating its body in the direction
of the milk-jug, which stood between Ethan and Mattie. The two leaned
forward at the same moment and their hands met on the handle of the jug.
Mattie's hand was underneath, and Ethan kept his clasped on it a
moment longer than was necessary. The cat, profiting by this unusual
demonstration, tried to effect an unnoticed retreat, and in doing so
backed into the pickle-dish, which fell to the floor with a crash.

Mattie, in an instant, had sprung from her chair and was down on her
knees by the fragments.

"Oh, Ethan, Ethan--it's all to pieces! What will Zeena say?"

But this time his courage was up. "Well, she'll have to say it to the
cat, any way!" he rejoined with a laugh, kneeling down at Mattie's side
to scrape up the swimming pickles.

She lifted stricken eyes to him. "Yes, but, you see, she never meant it
should be used, not even when there was company; and I had to get up on
the step-ladder to reach it down from the top shelf of the china-closet,
where she keeps it with all her best things, and of course she'll want
to know why I did it--"

The case was so serious that it called forth all of Ethan's latent
resolution.

"She needn't know anything about it if you keep quiet. I'll get another
just like it to-morrow. Where did it come from? I'll go to Shadd's Falls
for it if I have to!"

"Oh, you'll never get another even there! It was a wedding present--don't
you remember? It came all the way from Philadelphia, from Zeena's aunt
that married the minister. That's why she wouldn't ever use it. Oh,
Ethan, Ethan, what in the world shall I do?"

She began to cry, and he felt as if every one of her tears were pouring
over him like burning lead. "Don't, Matt, don't--oh, don't!" he implored
her.

She struggled to her feet, and he rose and followed her helplessly while
she spread out the pieces of glass on the kitchen dresser. It seemed to
him as if the shattered fragments of their evening lay there.

"Here, give them to me," he said in a voice of sudden authority.

She drew aside, instinctively obeying his tone. "Oh, Ethan, what are you
going to do?"

Without replying he gathered the pieces of glass into his broad palm
and walked out of the kitchen to the passage. There he lit a candle-end,
opened the china-closet, and, reaching his long arm up to the highest
shelf, laid the pieces together with such accuracy of touch that a close
inspection convinced him of the impossibility of detecting from below
that the dish was broken. If he glued it together the next morning
months might elapse before his wife noticed what had happened, and
meanwhile he might after all be able to match the dish at Shadd's Falls
or Bettsbridge. Having satisfied himself that there was no risk of
immediate discovery he went back to the kitchen with a lighter step, and
found Mattie disconsolately removing the last scraps of pickle from the
floor.

"It's all right, Matt. Come back and finish supper," he commanded her.

Completely reassured, she shone on him through tear-hung lashes, and his
soul swelled with pride as he saw how his tone subdued her. She did not
even ask what he had done. Except when he was steering a big log down
the mountain to his mill he had never known such a thrilling sense of
mastery.

Driving the lumber to Andrew Hale's, Ethan looks forward to his evening with Mattie. He whistles and sings as he rides along; there resides in him a spark of life that Starkfield has not yet extinguished. It was even stronger when he was younger. He was known in Worcester as taciturn, but even when he is quiet he loves the company of others. After he returned to the farm to care for his mother, his mother slowly became more and more eccentric. By the end, she rarely talked at all. His cousin, Zeena Pierce, came to help care for her. Zeena seemed lively at first, providing the company and conversation that Ethan craved. She was an efficient housekeeper, and her help restored some of the freedom Ethan had once known. When his mother died, he could not bear the thought of being alone again, and he asked Zeena to stay with him as his wife. At first, they had plans to sell the farm and move to the city. But financial troubles and a scarcity of buyers impeded them, and Zeena became more and more sickly and obsessed with her own illnesses. Her hypochondria cut off the possibility of leaving Starkfield. After a year, Zeena became as quiet as Ethan's mother had been. To explain why he couldn't drive Zeena to the station today, Ethan lied and said he needed to deliver the lumber in person to get a cash advance. But now he regrets the lie: thinking they have cash handy, Zeena will be more extravagant in buying her medicines. Uncharacteristically, Ethan resolves to swallow some of his pride and ask Andrew Hale for cash up front instead of the normal quarterly payment. But once he asks Hale, Ethan feels shame. Hale is not willing to give the cash, although he refuses with enough geniality, and Ethan is too proud to say he needs the money. While in town, Ethan runs some errands. He runs into Denis Eady briefly, and worries that the young man might be headed toward the Frome farm. Ethan also stumbles onto Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum kissing; he realizes with sadness that these two need not hide their passion, while he has been torturing himself over a simple kiss with Mattie. As he rides back to the farm, he takes note of a tombstone that has always interested him because the man in the grave shares his name: "SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF ETHAN FROME AND ENDURANCE HIS WIFE, WHO DWELLED TOGETHER IN PEACE FOR FIFTY YEARS. When Ethan gets to the door he finds it locked, and it takes a moment for Mattie to answer. The wait reminds him so much of the previous night that he half-expects to see Zeena there. But it is Mattie, her hair laced with a red ribbon. Ethan is overjoyed just being with her. They sit down for dinner, but conversation proves difficult. Any mention of Zeena's name leads to awkwardness, and Ethan pretends to be famished so he can eat rather than talk. The cat knocks over the pickle-dish, shattering it, and Mattie is thrown into a panic: it is a fine red dish, one of Zeena's wedding gifts. It came all the way from Philadelphia and is irreplaceable here in Starkfield. Mattie begins to cry, because Zeena will want to know why the dish was being used in the first place. Ethan takes charge of the situation, piecing the dish together and putting it back on the high shelf where it is kept. He'll glue it tomorrow, and it might take months for Zeena to realize what happened. Mattie does not even know what he has done, but she trusts him enough not to ask him about it. Ethan is thrilled that his assurance subdues her; it makes him feel strong and in control.

The first half of the chapter is spent establishing that Starkfield in general and the Fromes' farm in particular stamps the life out of any who live there. We are told that a spark of life resides in Ethan still, but we also remember the older, grim Ethan of the opening. The life left in Ethan at twenty-one will not last much longer. The themes of isolation and lost potential are central to the story of Ethan's youth. He lost his chance to pursue further studies, and he returned home to care for his mother as she lost her mind and became silent. The effect of environment is powerful, as the Frome farm wears down anyone who spends too much time there: Zeena, initially lively, became increasingly lost to hypochondria and bouts of silence. Starkfield winters exact a heavy price. We see more determinism in the marriage: it came about not because of great passion, but because of loneliness. Significantly, Ethan's mother died in winter. Ethan wonders if he would have married Zeena if the death had happened in the spring; it was the thought of spending winter alone that made him need her. The chance timing of his mother's death becomes another factor over which Ethan had no control; it may have led to his disastrous marriage, a marriage that tied him to Starkfield for good. The moment with Andrew Hale reveals Ethan's fierce pride. He swallows it enough to ask for a cash advance, but once he has made the request his face becomes red. And he cannot bring himself to explain his request to Andrew; when Andrew asks if Ethan has any special need for the money, Ethan cheerfully says that he doesn't. Wharton uses a moment of happiness to show the painful passage of time in Starkfield. When Ethan stumbles on Ruth and Ned kissing, we remember that in twenty-four years time, Ruth will be an old widow living in the careworn remains of her father's mansion. Rarely do we see places or people for whom a pleasant fate waits. We know that Denis Eady will be very wealthy, but the young Denis is presented as so unlikable that his future prosperity is almost as depressing as the hard times waiting for Ruth. Wharton foreshadows Mattie's future transformation into a second Zeena. Zeena, too, was lively when she came to the Frome farm. And when Ethan waits at the door, Mattie imitates Zeena's actions from the previous night. The parallel is so strong that Ethan wonders if Zeena is going to be there when the door opens. Although Mattie is lively now, it must be remembered that Zeena once had the power to make Ethan happy. Starkfield winters and the harshness of life at the Frome's farm can wear down anybody. The old tombstone is another bit of ominous foreshadowing. As the tombstones mock Ethan with the reminder of other Fromes who never were able to leave Starkfield, this tombstone foretells the living Ethan's fate. The Ethan Frome of the tombstone lived with his wife, Endurance, for fifty years. The language is of compulsion and forbearance rather than a celebration of the couple's life together. The best that can be said of them is that they "dwelled together in peace," and the wife's name is a symbol and a bit of foreshadowing. For the living Ethan, love will not be the mark of his life with Mattie or Zeena. Endurance will be the virtue that Ethan will be forced to cultivate, and he will have long decades to do it. It becomes very clear at dinner that Mattie's feelings for Ethan are in line with his feelings for her. She uses the forbidden red dish and prepares Ethan's favorite foods: clearly, she wanted to make their dinner together special. They are making an attempt at a normal dinner together, as a husband and wife would have, but their situation does not allow it. Zeena's absence is nearly as oppressive as Zeena's presence, and conversation becomes impossible. Red is being used as a symbol of passion and transgression. In Chapters 1 and 2, Mattie is wearing a cherry scarf. Here, she wears a red ribbon in her hair and serves Ethan on a rid dish. But passion and transgression lead to trouble: the red dish is smashed, and Mattie panics about having to explain the loss to Zeena. As much as they would like to pretend otherwise, it is impossible for Mattie and Ethan to have a dinner together like a married couple. Their meal deteriorates into awkward conversation, silences, and broken dishes that cannot be replaced

Zeena takes off while Mattie is doing the dishes and then Ethan leaves, too. He and Mattie exchange friendly yet casual good-byes. The kitchen is warm and cozy, complete with potted geraniums and a sleeping cat. Ethan wants to stay, but even more he wants to get his work done so he can be back before the night comes. He thinks of Mattie while he works. Mattie doesn't keep the kind of ultra-clean kitchen his mother had, but makes the place look friendly. In his mind, he imagines their evening together. He sees them by the fire, he smoking his pipe, Mattie laughing and talking. It will be their first time alone. Ever. He lets himself believe everything is OK with Zeena now, and begins to feel better about life. For once, he even whistles while he works. Ethan loves to see people being happy, but is rarely happy himself. At school he loved it when the guys were friendly with him. He has become more and more silent with each passing year. After his dad died, leaving Ethan to take care of the mill, the farm, and his mother, Ethan didn't have time to hang out with young people. His mother stopped talking soon after. When begged by Ethan to speak, she would tell him that due to the loudness of the voices in the yard, she couldn't hear what he was saying. When she was near the end, Ethan's cousin Zenobia came to help him care for the old woman. Ethan was so starved for the sound of another human's voice that Zeena sounded awesome to him. He thought he would have gone insane if she hadn't come, and was very grateful to her. She was also really good and kind to his mother. Zeena was preparing to leave town after the funeral, but he stopped her, and asked that she remain with him in Starkfield. Ethan thinks that if his mother had died in summer or spring instead of the desolate winter, he probably would never have gotten himself in the mess . Zeena had agreed to move away from Starkfield with Ethan. The initial plan was to sell the farm and mill and move to a city. Ethan loved nature, but not farming. Engineering was what he planned to study. He thought that Zeena was an intelligent person who would help him build a nice life - away from Starkfield. Zeena's home town was bigger than Starkfield, and closer to passing trains, so she didn't want to live in the middle of nowhere either. But times were hard, and the farm didn't sell. In the meantime, Ethan found out that Zeena would never move. She thought she was better than the people in Starkfield, but couldn't handle the idea of living in a place where people might look down on her. This meant that pretty much anywhere but Starkfield was out of the question. They had been married about a year when Zeena changed from a person in seemingly perfect heath, into a person who was always sick. Lots of people in Starkfield are obsessed with illness, but Zeena has always been an extreme case. The she stopped talking, too. Zeena claimed that talking to Ethan was pointless because he didn't pay attention to the things she said. There was truth in that. Zeena was all nagging and complaining. Sometimes Ethan wonders if Zeena was having psychological problems similar to his mother's. Other times he thinks that she's quietly planning some who-knows-what kind of deed. He feels better now though. If Zeena is her old self, going to expensive doctors and all that, then nothing must be the matter. The only thing bugging him was the lie about money he told to Zeena. So he decides to see if he can collect some money from Andrew Hale. Ethan puts the question to him nonchalantly, and Hale refuses good-naturedly. He says he's short because he's setting up a house for his son Ned and his bride to be, Ruth Varnum. When asked if he needs it badly, Ethan is too ashamed to admit it, and goes away empty handed. He takes care of some other business, and he thinks about how long his seven years of marriage to Zeena has seemed. Denis Eady drives by with his dad's cutter. Ethan says hi to Denis, and wonders if he could be going to see Mattie. Ashamed of his jealousy, Ethan walks on and surprises Ned and Ruth, who are kissing in front of the Varnum house, in the same place where he and Mattie had talked last night. It makes him feel happy to have seen lovers. He wishes that he and Mattie didn't have to love in secret. On the long trek home Ethan keeps an ear out for Denis Eady's horse, still wondering if the man had been visiting Mattie. As he nears the farm he sees that Mattie's bedroom light is on, and he imagines her dressing for the evening meal as she always did, much to Zeena's mocking displeasure. He passes the graves again and looks at the one that belongs to an ancestor that has his same name. The stone says that the other Ethan Frome and his wife, Endurance, were married for fifty-years, and buried together. He wonders if he would and Zeena would be married for fifty-years and be buried together. Ethan looks in the barn and has about convinced himself he'll find Denis horse there. But the horse is not there and all is well. He heads to the house. To his astonishment the kitchen door is locked. Well, of course Mattie would want the door locked when she's here, alone on this isolated farm. He calls to Mattie. It's like a replay of the night before, except this time Mattie is coming down the stairs with the lantern instead of Zeena. She's dressed in her regular dress, but has braided a ribbon into her hair that adds a touch of elegance that charms Ethan. The table is set for their evening meal of fresh doughnuts, blueberries, and pickles. Mattie has put the pickles in a pretty red serving dish. The fire burns, and the cat yawns. Ethan feels wonderful and almost too happy. The cat brushes Mattie's leg, almost tripping her. She looks so happy and Ethan can't quite believe it's just because of him. Jealousy comes over him again. Ethan asks Mattie if anybody come by while he was out working. She says that yes, someone had come. A little harshly he asks her who. A little angrily she tells him that Jotham Powell came by. Ethan asks if Jotham got Zeena safely to where she needed to be. Mattie says yes, but speaking of Zeena's name makes them both uneasy and they head to the table. The cat decides to join them, taking Zeena's chair. As they somewhat awkwardly dine together, the cat moves stealthily toward the nearby milk jug. Ethan and Mattie both reach for said milk jug and their hands meet on the handle. Ethan's hand is now on top of Mattie's. The cat backs off, and boom, knocks down the pickle dish onto the floor. Mattie begins to panic. Ethan says he can easily replace the item. Mattie says it's irreplaceable, that it was a wedding gift, and was never supposed to be used. Ethan begs her not to cry, and promises to make everything better. He reassembles the dish in its proper place, and plans to get glue and glue it before Zeena returns. Crisis somewhat averted, they settle back down. Mattie is beaming, and Ethan feels powerful and in control.

After Zeena leaves, Mattie and Ethan cheerfully set off to do their afternoon work; Ethan must do some hauling, and Mattie has housework to complete. As he works, he thinks about home. He remembers how nicely his mother had kept the house before her death and how it has again revived under Mattie's care. He also dreams about the evening that he and Mattie will spend together; he sees them talking happily, like a married couple. The mental picture delights him, and he whistles at his work. Ethan is always warmed by human contact, but he has had little since his return from college, where they called him "Old Ethe," or "Old Stiff." Once his mother grew sick, she seldom spoke to him, and the duties of the farm left him little time for outside social activities. When Zeena arrived to care for his mother, the sound of her voice steadied Ethan. Zeena took care of his mother and the house efficiently, and he felt he owed her something. When she prepared to leave, after his mother's funeral, he felt such a dread of being left alone that he asked her to stay. If only his mother had died in spring, not winter, things might be different. Early in the marriage, Ethan and Zeena had planned to pay off their debts, sell the farm, and try life in a large town, for Ethan did not particularly like farming. Unfortunately, their farm did not sell, and they were forced to stay in Starkfield. After a year of marriage, Zeena developed her sickliness. She also stopped talking, except to complain of her illnesses. He is again sorry that he told Zeena about the cash that Hale owes him; but he knows he probably won't be paid. Hale only dresses like a wealthy man; everyone knows he is often "behind." When he goes to see Hale, Ethan unloads the logs and meets the customer in his genial, untidy office. Hale is friendly, but astonished at Ethan's request for payment. Ethan is too shy and proud to plead urgent need. Hale treats the whole matter as a joke, and Ethan leaves the office after an embarrassed silence. When Hale follows him and questions him further about need, Ethan's pride causes him to deny any urgency. Hale then says that he was going to ask Ethan for an extension on payment anyway, since Ned Hale Jr. is about to marry and he would like to fix up a place for his son and his son's bride. Before he departs, Hale reminds Ethan that he and Zeena were married not too long ago, a thought that makes Ethan feel grim. Ethan walks around the deserted town, running errands in the cold weather. When Denis Eady passes him cheerily in his sleigh, Ethan wonders if the young man has heard that Zeena is gone and is heading out to see Mattie. As Ethan comes to the church corner where he and Mattie stood the night before, he catches Ruth Varnum and Ned Hale kissing. They gasp in embarrassment and run away. Ethan notes that at least they are engaged and can share their happiness in public. With his errands complete, Ethan eagerly heads for home. At his gate, he notices light up in Mattie's window and hopes she is fixing herself up for dinner. When she first arrived, she had often done this, but Zeena discouraged it by staring at her sarcastically. As Ethan passes by the family graveyard, he notices the stone over the grave of his namesake; it says "Ethan and Endurance Frome" and states they were married for fifty years. He wonders if he and Zeena will get such a gravestone. At the house, Ethan puts his horses up and is happy to see that Denis Eady's sleigh is not in his barn. Ethan sings as he walks to the door, which he finds locked. He shakes it violently and calls out to Mattie. A light appears, and the door is opened by the young, smiling Mattie. How different she appears at the door than Zeena on the previous night! She has a red ribbon in her hair, the fire burns brightly, and the table is set with wonderful food. It is Mattie's way of communicating that she cares for Ethan, and it works. Ethan suddenly feels a sense of well-being. Ethan asks Mattie if she has had any visitors. She laughs and says she has had one. Ethan scowls and inquires who. She smiles and says that Jotham has stopped to get a bit of coffee on his way back from taking Zeena to the Flats. The mention of Zeena's name puts a chill between them, and they sit down to dinner in silence. The cat creeps from Zeena's chair towards the milk jug on the table, and as they reach to shoo her away, the cat backs into the pickle dish, which shatters on the floor. Mattie is horrified, for the pickle dish is Zeena's special pride that is seldom used. At first Ethan tries to laugh it off, but he realizes the case is serious. He says he will go to town to buy another tomorrow, but Mattie reminds him that it was a wedding present, all the way from Philadelphia. Mattie begins to cry. It is as if their evening is shattered. But Ethan takes the pieces and puts them up in the china-closet. He will mend the dish tomorrow and try to locate a new one soon. This will buy them some time, and Zeena may not ever know. Ethan returns to Mattie and reassures her. He sees how his calm tone has subdued her, and he feels masterful.

Notes This chapter is full of Ethan's fantasies about life with Mattie. Objects take on new meaning for him as he relates them to her. Even time takes on a different quality when he thinks of it in relation to time spent with Mattie; he thinks that fifty years would pass in a flash with her by his side. Ethan is also very jealous about her, worrying that Denis may have come out to see Mattie in his absence. He even dislikes the cat for stroking Mattie's leg. The chapter also tells about how Zeena and Ethan came to be married, and it is a pathetic story. He asked her to marry him, for he felt he owed her something after she came and cared for his dying mother. He also dreaded being alone. The marriage, however, was doomed from the beginning. They were unable to sell the farm and escape from Starkfield, and Mattie grew sickly within a year. She also grew silent, except to complain, and Ethan longed for real human contact and conversation. Mattie's arrival was a true blessing to him. The scene with Andrew Hale gives some background about the town and its inhabitants. Hale is a questionable gentleman and a bit extravagant. He knows Ethan well enough to know that he can embarrass him. When he asks if Ethan urgently needs the payment money, Ethan is too proud to admit that he does. As a result, Hale does not pay him what is owed, but plans to build a house for his son, who is soon to marry. As Ethan walks through the town on his errands, he actually sees Ned Hale near the church; he and his fiancee are kissing. When they spy Ethan, they are embarrassed and run away. Ethan feels a pang of jealousy, because he cannot be open about his affection for Mattie. The broken pickle dish is extremely significant. An essentially useless item that was given as a wedding gift, it represents Zeena's marriage. Not only has Mattie taken Zeena's place in her kitchen and in her husband's mind, she has now used the one item Zeena took special pride in; and like the marriage, the pickle dish is also broken. Mattie knows the seriousness of the situation, but is also calmed by Ethan. He decides not to tell Zeena about the accident; instead he will repair the broken dish and then try to replace it with a new one. For once, he feels powerful and in control Color is important throughout the novel. White, the color of winter and the snow, represents coldness and blankness, like Ethan often feels. The grim earth-tones are usually associated with Zeena. In this chapter, it is important to note that the pickle dish is red, just like the ribbons that Mattie wears in her hair and her winter scarf. Throughout Ethan Frome, red is usually associated with Mattie and her cheerful character. But with the breaking of the red pickle-dish, there is some foreboding concerning matters of the heart.

Now that Zeena has left, the house seems warm, bright and "homelike." Ethan gaily whistles and sings as he looks forward to spending an evening with Mattie, just like a married couple. While he has a reputation for being taciturn and serious, he admires gaiety in others and his character warms up when exposed to it. The narrator recounts the story of Ethan's meeting and marrying Zeena. He was left alone to run the farm and mill after his father's accident, and had no time left for chatting to people in the village. Then, when his mother fell ill, the house felt lonely and silent. When his mother was nearing death, Zeena came to nurse her. Ethan was grateful for Zeena's chat. He was also impressed by her efficiency at the sick bed. After his mother's funeral, he was filled with dread at the thought of being left on his own on the farm for the rest of the winter, and asked her to stay there with him. When they married, they agreed that they would sell the farm and sawmill and move to a large town. Ethan wanted to work as an engineer and have access to lectures and libraries. But the farm did not sell quickly, and Ethan soon realized that Zeena could not live in a town because she would be looked down upon. She needed to live in a place like Starkfield, where she could look down on others. When she was nursing his mother, she had seemed healthy, but he discovered that her skill at nursing had been gained through observation of her own symptoms. "Then she too fell silent. " The very reason why Ethan married her no longer applied. Ethan no longer listened to her, because all her talk consisted of complaining. He worries that her silence may be a sign that she, like his mother, is turning "queer," or that it conceals secret intentions drawn from suspicions. Ethan worries about his having told Zeena that he is to receive cash for the wood, as this was only a cover story invented as an excuse not to drive her to the station. He therefore asks Andrew Hale for an advance on the payment, but he is too proud to plead an urgent need. Hale genially refuses, partly on the grounds that he is spending money on fixing up a house for his son and Ruth to live in after they are married. While doing business in the village, Ethan is passed by Denis Eady driving his cutter toward the Frome farm. Ethan worries that Denis has heard that Zeena has left for Bettsbridge and is going to spend time with Mattie. He is struck by a storm of jealousy. As he passes the church, he surprises Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum kissing under the Varnum spruces, the same place where he and Mattie had stood together the previous night. He envies them because unlike him, they do not need to hide their happiness. As he approaches the farmhouse, he sees a light upstairs and thinks of Mattie in her room, preparing herself for supper. He remembers how much care she had taken with her appearance when she had first arrived, attracting Zeena's scorn. He passes the Frome gravestones, glancing at one marking the grave of a Frome ancestor with the same name as him. It reads: "Sacred to the memory of Ethan Frome and Endurance his wife, who dwelled together in peace for fifty years." He wonders if the same epitaph might be written over him and Zeena. When he reaches the farmhouse, Ethan is happy to see that Denis Eady's horse is not in the barn. He finds the door locked and rattles the handle. After a minute, he sees the same light appear under the door as he had the previous day, when Zeena had opened the door. But tonight it is Mattie who opens the door to him and stands with her lamp lifted. Ethan is struck by her youthful beauty and the crimson ribbon she has woven into her hair. She has laid the table for supper, setting out his favorite pickles in a red glass dish. He asks if there have been any visitors, and she playfully admits to one, arousing his jealousy. She explains that she gave Jotham Powell a cup of coffee after he had driven Zeena to the station. As they draw up their chairs to the table, the cat leaps between them onto Zeena's empty chair, and Ethan feels that Zeena is in the room with them. Mattie asks whether, if there is more snow, it might delay Zeena's return. At that moment, the cat jumps onto the table and knocks the pickle dish onto the floor, where it smashes into pieces. Mattie is terrified of what Zeena will say and begins to cry. The pickle dish had been a wedding present that came all the way from Philadelphia, and Zeena had so prized it that she kept it on the top shelf of the china closet so that no one could use it. Ethan comforts Mattie and lays the pieces of the dish together on the shelf so that only a close inspection would reveal that the dish is broken. He plans to glue it together the next morning and eventually to try to buy a replacement in a nearby town. Mattie is relieved, and Ethan feels thrilled by her trust in him to rescue the situation.

. Nature in Ethan Frome is never neutral, and Wharton's remarks about the elements, the light and the landscape carry a deeper significance. In Chapter 3, Zeena is portrayed with the "pale light reflected from the banks of snow" on her face, making it look "more than usually drawn and bloodless" and throwing her wrinkles into high relief. The image is one of cold and death. At the beginning of Chapter 4, after Zeena has gone, Mattie is shown in the "warm and bright" kitchen. The sun is slanting in through the south window onto Mattie's moving figure and onto the geraniums, brought in from the garden that Ethan had planted for her. The theme of climate and landscape shaping character is taken up: "There was in him a slumbering spark of sociability which the long Starkfield winters had not yet extinguished." While at first glance this is an optimistic image, we have seen how overwhelming the winters are here, and we wonder whether love can conquer them. It is no exaggeration to say that Ethan only married Zeena because of the weather. His mother, whom Zeena came to nurse, had died, and Ethan could not bear the thought of being left alone in a silent farmhouse for the rest of the winter - so he asked Zeena to stay: "He had often thought since that it would not have happened if his mother had died in spring instead of winter." . Not only does Ethan's marriage turn out to be the graveyard of his ambition to move to a town and work as an engineer, but in a sad irony, the main reason he marries Zeena vanishes, as "she too fell silent." His trip to see Andrew Hale offers up several incidents that emphasise how, by marrying Zeena, he has missed his chance of happiness. First comes Hale's comment that it is "not so long ago" since he fixed up his house for Zeena, when Ethan feels that the seven years he has spent with her seem a very long time. Then comes the sight of the handsome young Denis Eady driving past in his new fur cap in the direction of the Frome farm and Mattie. Finally, there is the surprised shame of Ned and Ruth as he catches them kissing, though, he reflects, they have no need to hide their happiness, while he has to keep his feelings for Mattie under wraps. The words on the gravestone of Ethan's ancestor, also called Ethan Frome, have particular resonance for him. The epitaph says the ancestor had lived "in peace" with his wife Endurance, whose name is suggestive of the nature of Ethan's marriage to Zeena. He does not enjoy his life with her, but only endures it. This image of marriage gone sour is contrasted with the romance between Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum, which is characterized by hope and joy. There is a deliberate parallel in the scene where Mattie opens the door to Ethan, just as Zeena had done the previous night. Though the event is identical, the two women are shown as very different from one another. Where Zeena had appeared as wizened and dried-up, Mattie is shown in all her youthful beauty: she has a "child's" wrist and a "slim young throat. " Most significantly, she has woven a crimson ribbon through her hair. The color red, denoting Mattie's passion and sensuality, links the ribbon to the scarf that she wore at the dance. This scarf acted as a 'flag' or signal enabling Ethan to mark her out among the crowd. We are led to wonder, as Ethan surely must, what tonight's ribbon signals. The Fromes' cat has an interesting symbolic role. He leaps onto Zeena's empty chair between Ethan and Mattie, almost as if he were the ghost of Zeena trying to keep them apart. Wharton would certainly have been aware of the cat's role in the mythology of Europeans and, by extension, their descendants who settled in the United States. Cats were the favorite companions or 'familiars' of witches, who were believed to temporarily occupy the animal's body for the purpose of travelling about and doing their work unseen. The Fromes' cat is perhaps responsible for Ethan's uneasy feeling that Zeena is somehow in the room with them. The fact that the cat breaks the pickle dish is significant: the cat is already symbolically linked with Zeena. Ethan feels that the shattered dish reflects Mattie's and his shattered evening together, though it can also be seen as representing their disloyalty in the context of Ethan's marriage . The dish was given to the Fromes on their marriage and ever since then had lain unused on a high shelf, symbolic of Ethan's sterile marriage to Zeena. It is typical of Ethan that after the dish is broken, he lays together the pieces, unable to consign it to the dustbin or to confront Zeena with the truth. Even when Zeena is absent, she gets her way; he has successfully come between Ethan and Mattie.