Mrs. Montgomery's Verdict — Washington Square

Dr. Sloper visits Mrs. Montgomery in her neat little red-brick house on Second Avenue, a toy-like dwelling that tells him she is thrifty, modest, and proud of immaculate order. He says plainly that he has come to make her say disagreeable things about her brother, and he appeals to her conscience on Catherine's behalf, describing his daughter as soft, simple, and an easy victim of a bad husband. Mrs. Montgomery is earnest, poor, and flattered by the visit, but reluctant to condemn Morris. The doctor then explains the financial stakes: Catherine has ten thousand a year from her mother, and if she marries without his consent she will get none of his own fortune, which he intends for public institutions.

Mrs. Montgomery is shocked by the sums and troubled by the ethics of such a marriage. When pressed, she admits Morris lives on her, teaches her children Spanish as a pretense, and has taken money she can barely spare from her five children. Dr. Sloper's philosophic induction lands when he tells her she has suffered immensely for her brother, and she bursts into tears.

He offers to place a fund in her hands for Morris if he throws him back on her, then asks her to say Morris is abominably selfish. She cannot say it, but as he leaves she gives him what he came for: Don't let her marry him. The chapter turns investigation into moral theatre, and the doctor leaves with confirmation wrapped in a poor woman's grief.