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Basil suspects that everyone in the room knows of his “secret heresy” (39) that he is “not eager for the changes” (39) advocated by the feminists. He is especially annoyed by the temperance movement because he does not want “a herd of vociferating women” (40) to impact his ability to drink.
Mrs. Farrinder asks if he would like to describe “the social and political condition of the South” (40). Basil declines, for he feels “a passionate tenderness” for the South (40) and does not want to defile it by speaking about it to Northerners. When Mrs. Farrinder notes that she has been advised not to speak in Southern cities, Basil, “with gallantry” (40), tells her it is a shame for the South.
Basil overhears Mr. Pardon telling Olive that Verena Tarrant recently gave many inspirational speeches in the West. Mr. Pardon tells Mrs. Farrinder how talented a speaker Verena is, and Mrs. Farrinder implores Verena to speak.
Verena demurs, and Dr. Tarrant explains that when Verena speaks, it is with “some power outside” (44) that “seem[s] to flow through her” (44). In order to help “the voice” (44) come, he lays his hands on her head.
Mrs. Farrinder is put off by Dr. Tarrant’s gushing praise for his daughter. Basil is not sure “whether it were effrontery or innocence” (45) that gives Verena her “complacency” (45).
Dr. Tarrant calms his daughter so she can speak, telling her that she must “let the spirit come out when it will” (47). Basil finds Dr. Tarrant to be “false, cunning, vulgar, [and] ignoble” (46). Verena is beautiful but has “an air of being on exhibition” (46).
Finally, her father steps aside and Verena begins to speak with “simplicity and grace” (48) about women’s oppression, enrapturing everyone in the room as she speaks. Basil’s disagreement with the content does not detract from his enjoyment of her speech. A conservative, he tells himself she doesn’t “know what she meant” (49) and that she has “been stuffed with this trash by her father” (49). She is “as innocent as she [is] lovely” (49).
Verena speaks of how men should “admire” women less and “trust” them more (49). She wonders how men can look at the war-torn world they have created and feel boastful, and she believes women can make it “a place of love” (50). All around, Basil hears people speak of her “gift” (51). Mr. Pardon says he knows people who “would want to engage Miss Verena at a high figure” (51) and that “[t]here’s money for some one in that girl” (51). Basil wants to meet Verena but is “aware of how much he was an outsider in such a house as that” (51).
Basil worries that if Mrs. Farrinder begins to mentor Verena, Verena will “be ruined” (52) and will “become a screamer” (52). He is disappointed when Olive announces they are leaving. He attempts to convince Olive to stay, but Olive is inexplicably unnerved. Before leaving, Olive asks Verena if she would visit her. Mrs. Tarrant entices Olive to visit by telling her that her father was an abolitionist. Basil wants to talk to Verena but worries about sounding “patronizing and ponderous” (54) like “Mississippi phrases” (54). Verena agrees to visit Olive. Observing Verena’s “childlike good faith” (54), Basil suspects she would respond favorably to any invitation from anyone.
He and Olive leave. Outside, Olive tells him not to join her in the carriage. Basil is perplexed by her “coolness” and thinks her “a very odd cousin” (55).
Verena, at her mother’s bidding, visits Olive the next day. Verena is “submissive,” “unworldly” (55), and susceptible to her mother’s opinions about “the possible advantages of an intimacy with Miss Chancellor” (55). Mrs. Tarrant has a tendency to “cling” to “society” (56) so she can obtain “a position in the world” (56) that she “had never had” (56).
Mrs. Tarrant believes that Verena is so special that she must have be a gift from “Providence” (56) for Mrs. Tarrant to obtain a position in high society. Mrs. Tarrant misses associating with a higher class of people. When she met her husband, he was an “itinerant vendor of lead-pencils” (56), and Mrs. Tarrant married him despite the disapproval of her family.
Because Dr. Tarrant lacks business sense, Mrs. Tarrant often goes hungry. Because of him, she has lived with all sorts of people, has followed strange diets, and has attended many séances. Having “had a great deal to put up with” (57), she is glad to visit Miss Birdseye’s house, where she feels she has “re-entered society” (57).
Verena sees life “very simply” (59) and is unconscious of “social complexion” (59). Mrs. Tarrant insists Verena visit Olive immediately because Olive would be “a most desired friend” (61) who “would open to her the best saloons in Boston” (61). Verena agrees to go because she enjoys carriage rides and is “ever-curious about the world” (61). She does not feel any “vanity” because of her gift (61) and enjoys simple pleasures like adding a feather to her hat.
Olive tells Verena that she had a premonition that Verena would visit that day. Verena is pleased to be in “so pleasant a place” (63). She sees quickly that Olive is anxious and immediately on intimate terms, with a “concentration of purpose” (62). Olive speaks with a tremulous voice even when not “the least excited” (62). When Olive tells Verena how “remarkable” she is, Verena insists, “Oh, it isn’t me, you know; it’s something outside!” (62). Olive believes that Verena’s “bright, vulgar clothes” (63) make her appear to be “a rope-dancer or a fortune-teller” (63) and appreciates that she belongs “to the ‘people’” (63). Desiring a female friend who can provide “union of soul” (63), she asks Verena to be her “friend of friends, beyond every one, everything, forever and forever” (64). She expresses excitement over what the two women could accomplish together. Later, Verena would wonder “why she had not been more afraid” of Olive (64).
When Olive asks Verena to live with her, Verena assumes this “passionate rejoinder” (65) must be typical of the upper class. Verena says she must stay with her parents, and Olive resolves to “rescue the girl from the danger of vulgar exploitation” (65). Though Verena does not appear very “reflective” (65) when not using her gift, Olive believes Verena is the only person who feels as strongly about women’s rights as she does. She begs Verena to promise that “the redemption of women” (67) is “the only thing in the world she cared for” (67). Verena proclaims that she wants to give her life. Olive has visions of them sitting together as friends joined in a cause.
Basil arrives to say goodbye, for he is leaving Boston the next day. He is delighted to see that Verena is there. He jokes with her that he is “ashamed of being a man” (70) and that she “convinced” him of her beliefs (70). Verena quickly sees that Olive is not happy.
Basil questions Verena about women’s emancipation and challenges her statement that women are “without influence” (71), claiming women are “at the bottom of all the wars” (71). Verena jokes with him in response. As she prepares to leave, Basil tells her he would like to see her again so he may “interpret history for [her] by a new light” (72). Olive walks Verena to the door. While she is gone, Mrs. Luna, who is increasingly interested in Basil, tries to make Basil admit Olive is “dreadful” (75).
Olive reappears, and she and Basil argue over whether Verena should “come out in public” (75). Olive believes Verena should not be silenced, but Basil fears her voice will be “raised to a scream” (75).
Mrs. Luna suggests Basil visit her in New York. Olive realizes that neither her sister nor Basil feel much kinship for her and believes “there might be a kind of protection for her in binding them together” (76). She refuses to shake Basil’s hand as he leaves.
Mrs. Tarrant is pleased by the descriptions Verena gives of Olive’s house. Verena visits Olive many times in the next few weeks. Mrs. Tarrant believes Verena will marry eventually and hopes she will marry someone “connected with public life” (77). However, she is not eager for Verena to marry because she knows once women marry, motherhood and house duties bind them. Verena is impressed with Olive’s dedication to the cause.
Dr. Tarrant is excited that his daughter has the opportunity to serve the public. He believes Verena’s appearance at Miss Birdseye’s indicates “that the fruitful time was not far off” (81). He yearns for fame and looks forward to a time when he and his daughter can be in the newspapers together. He finds “pretexts” (82) to visit newspapers offices.
These chapters continue the dichotomy between North and South, old and new. Basil often feels out of place because he is from the South, which he both valorizes and feels vaguely embarrassed by. Feeling a “passionate tenderness” for his home (40), he declines to describe the South to Mrs. Farrinder, for “Northern fanatics” (40) could not understand. When first meeting Verena, Basil is self-conscious of his “Mississippi phrases” (54). These passages subtly, almost tenderly, suggest Basil’s acknowledgment that these women represent a land that has defeated his own.
Basil’s perspective on women wildly contrasts the opinion of those in Miss Birdseye’s parlor. Basil is passionately against prohibition because he dislikes the idea of “a herd of vociferating women” (40) putting forth “meddling legislation” (40). He reduces Verena to an object for the male gaze, worrying that the beautiful Verena will “be ruined” and “become a screamer” (52) if Mrs. Farrinder brings her further into the feminist cause. Adamantly opposed to Verena’s statements about how women have been “trampled under the iron heel of man” (48), Basil convinces himself “she didn’t mean it” (49) and is only repeating what she has been told.
Though his politeness with the suffragists may appear at odds with his disdain for what they stand for, it exemplifies his chivalry, which decrees manners, honor, and nobility, specifically toward women. The code of chivalry assumes that women are fragile beings in need of protection. Thus, when Mrs. Farrinder tells him she has been advised not to speak in the South, Basil gallantly compliments her by implied that this is the South’s loss. This politeness is condescending rather than complimentary—as Verena points out, men should admire women less and “trust [them] a little more” (49).
However, Basil’s suspicion that Verena is being influenced is not unwarranted—her father physically overpowers her to prepare her to speak, demonstrating her lack of agency. Verena is young and naive about the motives of people around her. She speaks with “artless enthusiasm” (42), and she has “childlike good faith” (54). She is “submissive and unworldly” (55), deferring to her mother to teach her about high society. When Olive invites her to live with her, Verena assumes this is a normal upper class offer. She tells Olive her gift “isn’t me” (62), suggesting she is merely repeating what she hears.
Verena’s innocence enables others to exploit her. Dr. Tarrant is desperate to be in the newspapers and hopes that their visit to Miss Birdseye’s house will usher in a “fruitful time” (81). Mrs. Tarrant, eager to break into high society, hopes her daughter will “open to her the best saloons in Boston” (61). Matthias Pardon insists “[t]here’s money for someone” in Verena (51). Basil, too, seeks to use Verena to fulfill his desire for the ideal woman.
Olive also exploits Verena to fill her own desires. Olive has sought out poor shop-girls to mentor, and she tells Mrs. Farrinder she would prefer to work with the poor than with her wealthy neighbors. She appreciates that Verena’s “vulgar clothes” and “salient appearance” show her to belong to the lower class. Verena makes Olive’s feel she is helping a poor girl and imagine they can have “a union of soul” (63). Olive, who has been “looking for so long” (63) for “a friend of her own sex” (63), immediately exploits Verena’s “unlimited generosity” (63) by begging Verena to promise the “the redemption of women” (67) will be her only quest. Verena is swept away by the drama of the moment. The narrator’s note that Verena would later wonder “why she had not been more afraid” of Olive (64) and the shop-girls’ fear of Olive foreshadow the ominous events to come. Furthermore, Verena’s joke to Basil that she “like[s] the individual male” (70) suggests to readers that Verena is not immune to romance, foreshadowing later tension with Olive.
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By Henry James