Catherine Returns Home Changed — Washington Square

The voyage is uncomfortable, 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 that she may almost say she has lived with him. She praises his wonderful character, full of passion and energy, and just as true. Catherine listens with mixed interest and apprehension. 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 he 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, and told Lavinia he was right to wait. Catherine 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. 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. She 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. 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.