The Long Game of Waiting — Washington Square

The story takes a long stride. Morris stays away as if he had died of a broken heart. Catherine appears to have buried the episode as deeply as if she had chosen the ending. She has been incurably wounded. The Doctor has no means of knowing it. That ignorance is his punishment for years of sarcasm. Mrs Penniman tells him nothing. Mrs Montgomery will not bear witness now that Catherine is out of danger. Mrs Almond has taken the girl up and still leaves her brother in the dark.

Elizabeth sees the bruise. She compares Catherine's calm to life after an amputation. Dr Sloper will not pump up tears over what he calls the most fortunate thing that ever happened to her. He put his foot on the marriage from the first and keeps it there. He suspects a blind: Morris playing dead, one ship kept for the day the Doctor dies. Mrs Almond tells him that theory accuses his only daughter of being the vilest of hypocrites. He would have liked to kill Morris. He still wants Catherine an honest man's wife before he dies.

She refuses a warm widower with three little girls and a clever lawyer who is truly in love with her. She becomes an admirable old maid, regular, charitable, and kind to younger people. From her own point of view the great facts never change: Morris trifled with her affection, and her father broke its spring. Something in her life remains dead. Her duty is to fill the void without brooding. For seventeen years Mrs Penniman never speaks Morris's name. The silence relieves Catherine and still alarms her.