Kate Chopin

A respectable woman

Mrs. Baroda knew her husband expected his college friend, Gouvernail, up to spend a week or two on the plantation, because he was tired and had nowhere to rest in town.

hadn't some peace in the town. He was a journalist, and Gaston ( Mrs. Baroda's husband) described him like a tall, slim, cynical man. So Mrs. Baroda didn't like him. When she met him, he was nothing at all like the person her husband had described, but on the contrary he seemed very nice. And she rather liked him when he first introduced himself.

He sat rather mute and receptive before her chatty eagerness to make him feel at home and in face of Gaston's frank and wordy hospitality. His manner was courteous. He often smoked his cigar lazily and listened attentively to Gaston's experiences. He didn't care to fish, he didn't want do anything.

He tired Mrs. Baroda frightfully, because he didn't do anything and was very lazy and boring.

One night she went and sat alone on a bench. While Mrs Baroda was thinking about leaving her home the following morning, she heard footsteps crunching the gravel and noted a man with a cigar, Gouvernail who was coming towards her. He sat on the bench beside her and started talking about the old college days of her husband and him. Mrs. Baroda made no reply and was silent. She was attracted to him.Her mind only vaguely grasped what he was saying. She wanted to reach out her hand in the darkness and touch him with the sensitive tips of her fingers upon the face or the lips. She wanted to draw close to him, but she knew that she was a respectable woman, married to her husband. So she draw away him and left him there alone, without any explanation.

She wanted to tell her husband this folly, but beside being a respectable woman she was a very sensible one; and she knew there were some battles in life which a human being must fight alone.

The following morning she took a train to the city and came back home only when Gouvernail had left her home.

After a summer had passed, she herself suggested to have Gouvernail visit them again. Her husband was surprised. And she told him she had overcome everything and she would be very nice to him.