Chapter 21 — Reisz, Chopin, the letter from Robert

Reisz, having opened the door, pours coffee and makes Edna sit by the window in the small front room. The afternoon light is poor; the apartment smells of stale coffee and the gas stove. Reisz produces one of Robert's letters from a private drawer. The letter is mostly to her — about Mexico, about Vera Cruz heat, about Montel — but it mentions Edna twice, with formal restraint. The first mention is courteous. The second mention is, by its courtesy, more revealing.

Reisz hands Edna the letter and goes to the piano. She plays Chopin from memory while Edna reads it through, then reads it again, then a third time. The Chopin is the Impromptu in C-sharp minor, by Edna's later identification — the piece will return at her death. Edna weeps over the letter. Reisz, playing, watches her in the small wall mirror above the piano. She does not stop playing while Edna composes herself.

When the playing ends Reisz comes back, takes the letter, returns it to its drawer, and sits down opposite Edna. She tells her the line that is the pianist's gift to the novel: "The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies." She rises from her seat, comes around behind Edna's chair, and presses her hand to Edna's shoulder blades. "To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts — absolute gifts — which have not been acquired by one's own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul. The brave soul. The soul that dares and defies." She is feeling for wings. She is also warning Edna that what is required of her, if she is going where she is going, is nothing the household has prepared her for.