The Weight of Guilty Conscience — Alice Adams

Adams cannot stop wondering what J. A. Lamb thinks about his betrayal, even while supervising vats and boilers at the new plant. He tells his wife he is the biggest fool alive for worrying, yet catches himself muttering aloud that it is funny nobody has reported Lamb's reaction. Mrs. Adams reassures him that Lamb has probably forgotten the old glue project and that Walter's continued employment proves there is no hard feeling. Adams partly accepts her logic but admits the improved process is still essentially the formula Lamb paid him to develop, which keeps his unpersuaded conscience awake. He avoids downtown, shivers when Lamb's car passes, and works relentlessly until the terrible glue smell snakes through the neighborhood. Ironically the stench revives the district: carpenters refurbish the old butterine factory across the street, and Adams begins to feel optimistic about loans and bottling crews. At home he imagines the smell clinging to him two miles away while Alice sings Mimi on the veranda, terribly in love with Russell. Mrs. Adams decides Russell must finally be invited indoors for dinner. Adams marvels that after all this moral muck to help Alice, she seems to be succeeding anyway, which only deepens his puzzle.