Morris Gives Her Up — Washington Square

Mrs Penniman writes Morris a warning: the Doctor has come home more impracticable than ever. He lights the letter with his cigar and waits, sure another will come. The next one burns brighter. His hatred, she says, is a lurid flame that does not light Morris's future. Catherine is secretive. She has brought home quantities of clothing, ten pairs of shoes. You cannot set up married life on shoes. Lavinia wants three minutes at his office with a little reticule, like a woman of the people.

He will not have her downtown. They walk instead among empty lots. He is sick of being told the Doctor is ice and fire. The money is mathematically gone. A man should know when he is beaten. He must give her up. Lavinia has already practised the thought. If Morris cannot get the fortune, it would not do to marry Catherine without it. He asks her to take Catherine down, to prepare her, to ease him off. He does not want to know how much the girl loves him. It would be too painful.

The formula arrives ready-made. He cannot step between Catherine and her father, or give the Doctor a pretext to rob her. Lavinia finds it finely felt. He swings his stick and says botheration. He will not leave her for another woman, but for a wider career. He will come again. He has been four times since her return, and a woman should never keep a man dangling. Lavinia insists he must still have his last parting.