56 pages • 1-hour read
A Lost Lady
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Part 2, Chapters 4-5
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary
Intense rain floods the Forrester place at the end of July. Ben Keezer rides out to help the Forresters with chores and to deliver their mail, but one day Niel stops him as he leaves the post office. Niel asks if Ben is taking the Denver newspaper to the Forresters, and Ben replies that he is, that Mrs. Forrester likes to read the newspapers in the evenings, since she appears to be lonely.
Niel has already seen the Denver paper that day, which announced the marriage of Frank Ellinger to Constance Ogden. Niel tries to go to the Forresters’ that night, but the footbridge is washed out, and he cannot cross the river on foot. He returns to his uncle’s law office, which is a mess due to rain causing a chimney leak.
After midnight Niel hears footsteps, and Mrs. Forrester knocks on the door. She is drenched and agitated, and smells strongly of alcohol. She desperately asks to use the telephone to call Colorado, where Frank and Constance are staying. Niel warns that the telephone operator will hear her conversation and gossip about it. Mrs. Forrester insists that he place the call for her. Niel tells the operator that Judge Pommeroy’s office wishes to speak to Frank Ellinger, and he and Mrs. Forrester wait for the return call. Mrs. Forrester looks physically ill from agitation; “her blue lips, the black shadows under her eyes, made her look as if some poison were at work in her body” (75).
The telephone rings, and Niel speaks to the Colorado operator, who has Ellinger on the line. Niel hands the telephone to Mrs. Forrester, asking her to remain calm. At first Mrs. Forrester chats amiably with Ellinger. This surprises Niel, as he “had steeled his nerves for wild reproaches,” yet the “voice he heard behind him was her most charming; playful, affectionate, intimate, with a thrill of pleasant excitement that warmed its slight formality and burned through the common-place words like the colour in an opal” (76). As Ellinger tries to end the call, Mrs. Forrester becomes hysterical, calling him a coward and telling him that she never wants to see him again. Thinking that Ellinger has hung up on her, she flings the receiver down and begins to sob. In fact, Niel had cut the phone cord as soon as her voice had darkened, fearing that she would say things that would give the operator fodder for gossip.
Mrs. Forrester falls deeply asleep in her chair. Niel carries her to his room, cuts off her cold, sodden clothing, and wraps her in his bathrobe. Leaving her in his bed, Niel hurries to his uncle’s house and asks him to stay with Mrs. Forrester overnight while he goes to attend to Captain Forrester.
At daybreak, Niel goes into Captain Forrester’s room and tells him that his wife received a long-distance call during the night, and that he will go and bring her home now. Captain Forrester thanks Niel calmly. As he goes to the livery, Niel sees the telephone operator leaving her neighbor’s house, indicating that she had already reported Mrs. Forrester’s scandalous call.
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary
Captain Forrester suffers another stroke, which the local townswomen consider a judgment upon his wife. Mrs. Forrester falls apart after this latest calamity.
Prior to this, even as the Forresters’ fortune declined, the townspeople still treated them with great deference. When the ladies of the town came to visit, they dressed in their best clothing, and Mrs. Forrester met them in her parlor and spoke to them formally. Now these ladies come over with food, and Mrs. Forrester allows them the run of the house, “worn out” and “so exhausted that she was dull to what went on about her” (79). They sit with Captain Forrester, take over the kitchen, and rummage about in closets and the attic. As they do so, the ladies realize that the house they had thought was so grand is quite ordinary now, even run down. The ladies relish going through the linens and crystal and gossiping about how far Mrs. Forrester has fallen.
Niel is upset after overhearing some of the ladies’ conversations, and he tells his uncle that he does not think he can return to school, knowing that the Forresters are in such a state. He decides to take a year off so that he can care for them. Niel asks his uncle if his servant Tom can come work in the Forresters’ kitchen. Niel politely but firmly tell the ladies from town that the doctor has ordered quiet in the house and no visitors.
Mrs. Forrester goes to her bed for a week and sleeps. Captain Forrester’s health improves enough that he can go out in a wheelchair and enjoy his fall roses. Mrs. Forrester comments that going out to sit with his flowers and enjoying a cigar are the only pleasures left to him. Once Mrs. Forrester has rested sufficiently, she takes over in the kitchen, and Tom returns to Judge Pommeroy’s house.
Niel solemnly enjoys taking care of the Forresters. Though he regrets his lost year of studies, he is glad that he decided to stay. Spending so much time in the Forrester home brings Niel a warm sense of nostalgia and happiness; “no other house could take the place of this one in his life” (82).
Niel notices that Captain Forrester often calls out to his wife and that she replies, “Yes, Mr. Forrester” from wherever she is in the house, but she does not go to him. Niel supposes that Captain Forrester is calling out to her not because he needs something but just to hear her answer. Niel realizes that Captain Forrester knows his wife better than she knows herself and values her.
Part 2, Chapters 4-5 Analysis
In these chapters Niel tries to save Mrs. Forrester again. When she arrives at his uncle’s law office in the middle of the night to make a telephone call, Niel knows that the news of Frank Ellinger’s marriage has made her unhinged. Mrs. Forrester once tried to keep Constance Ogden away from Ellinger, and now she sees that she completely failed, that the younger and wealthier woman has replaced her in Ellinger’s affections. The office is chaotic and messy, mirroring Mrs. Forrester’s state. Niel cuts the telephone wire as soon as Mrs. Forrester’s voice became frenzied, to prevent the operator from hearing her tirade, then puts her to bed in dry clothing. Niel does all he can to protect Mrs. Forrester’s reputation, though he’s unable to shield her from town gossip.
Once Captain Forrester has another stroke and becomes incapacitated, his wife breaks down and stops caring about maintaining the pretense of upper-class formality. The ladies of Sweet Water always found the Forrester home impenetrable and Mrs. Forrester cordial and impersonal. Now the ladies bring over hot dishes as they would with any sick neighbor, as if a great leavening has taken place between the Forresters’ position and their own. In crawling through “the house like ants, the house where they had never before got past the parlour […] they found they had been fooled all these years” (79). The revelations about the Forresters’ relative destitution make the townswomen feel very pleased with themselves, and they enjoy laughing about how much Mrs. Forrester drinks and how mentally unstable she has become. A social icon has been toppled, and they now feel superior in comparison.
Niel saves Mrs. Forrester from this humiliation by taking over the house and turning out the town busybodies. He frees Mrs. Forrester of all household duties so that she can rest, and Captain Forrester’s condition improves under his care as well. Captain Forrester appreciates the end to the chaos, saying, “Thank you, Niel, thank you, Tom […] I value this quiet very highly” (81).
Niel feels “the satisfaction of those who keep faith” (81). The author uses this term to mean that Niel remains loyal to the Forresters, even when doing so is difficult and comes at a personal cost. Niel is nostalgic about the house and its contents, as they represent the best part of his childhood, when the Forresters’ home seemed like the most beautiful and genteel place in the world. While townswomen mock the Forresters’ house and think most of its contents are worthless, Niel cherishes everything about the home because it represents the Forresters’ noble and refined way of life.
These chapters also portray Captain Forrester in an interesting light. The town gossips think that Captain Forrester is a martyr whose strokes are the result of his wife’s improprieties. Niel himself had wondered how much Captain Forrester knew about his wife’s affair. It becomes clear to Niel that far from being a hapless victim, Captain Forrester was perfectly aware of his wife’s actions and loves her just the same. The more time Niel spends with Captain Forrester “in those peaceful closing days of his life, the more he felt that the Captain knew his wife better even than she knew herself; and that, knowing her, he—to use one of his own expressions—valued her” (82).
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