Catherine Returns Home Changed — Washington Square

The return voyage is wretched, and Catherine lands in New York without the elopement her father sarcastically expected. She will see Morris tomorrow; tonight she talks for hours with Mrs. Penniman, who claims remarkable opportunities to know him during the year abroad. Lavinia says Catherine does not really understand him yet, that living with him will be the real education, and praises his wonderful character, full of passion and energy, and just as true. Catherine listens with mixed interest and apprehension, aware that her aunt enjoyed a whole year of her lover's society while she crossed foreign roads alone with private thoughts. She is glad to speak Morris's name with someone not unjust to him, yet Lavinia's secretive intimacy unsettles her again. Mrs. Penniman admits she let Morris visit often, only tea and talk, though Mrs. Almond scolded her and promised not to betray her to the Doctor.

With a laugh she adds that he used to sit in her father's study, a detail Morris never told Catherine and which wounds her sense of propriety. Catherine wishes Morris had found employment sooner, then brightens when Lavinia reports beautiful news: he has entered a commission partnership with an office on Duane Street and printed cards. He is his own master now, not a subordinate, and told Lavinia he was right to wait. Catherine cannot wait to tell her father, though she knows he will care nothing. She unpacks lavish presents for everyone except Morris, to whom she brought only her undiverted heart, and drapes Lavinia in a cashmere shawl the aunt declares she will leave to Catherine's first-born daughter.

When Catherine asks whether she has changed, she insists she is the same, then grows franker: her father remains implacable, more firm if possible, and she has given up the Venetian scheme to melt him. Foreign travel only made him more determined and terrible. She no longer cares about disinheritance if Morris does not care, has money of her own, and delights in his business. Yet she rebukes Lavinia for changing advice, first urging defiance, now talking of winning him over, and declares she has come home to be married and will never plead with her father again. The speech startles Mrs. Penniman, who retreats with a nervous laugh, while Catherine stands transformed by resolve if not yet by wisdom.