Chapter 29 — the move; the pigeon house

Edna does not wait for Léonce's reply to her letter announcing the move. She has decided. A feverish urgency attends every action. She has rented a small cottage around the corner from the Esplanade Street house — Ellen the housemaid has called it the "pigeon house" because it is so small and looks like one — and has begun to pack. She is taking only what is hers: what she has acquired from her painting, what she had before the marriage, what she has not received as Léonce's bounty. The pictures, the silver, the rugs, the fine china — those stay in the Esplanade Street house, which she will turn back over to her husband when he returns.

Arobin finds her at it that afternoon. He has rung the bell, the door has been left open, he has walked in unceremoniously. She is on a high stepladder unhooking a picture from the wall, in an old blue gown with a red silk kerchief knotted around her hair to keep the dust out. She looks better than she has in months. He insists on taking her place on the ladder. Ellen brings him a dust cap to protect his hair; he ties it on as grotesquely as he can manage; Ellen laughs uncontrollably; Edna fastens it for him at his request. He climbs the ladder and takes down the pictures Edna directs.

He asks when she is moving. The day after tomorrow, after the dinner she is giving to mark the move — "the grand event, the coup d'état." There will be crystal, silver, gold, Sèvres, flowers, music, champagne. She will let Léonce pay the bills. Arobin asks if he will see her before the dinner. She tells him no, he will see her at the dinner. He follows her to the foot of the stairs and asks her again. She laughs and says "not an instant sooner," looking at him with eyes that "at once gave him courage to wait and made it torture to wait." The move is in motion. The dinner is in two days.