Chapter 3 — the late return; Edna weeps on the porch

Pontellier returns from Klein's at eleven that night, "in fine spirits, high energy, and very talkative." He wakes Edna with anecdotes and dumps a pile of crumpled bills and change on the bureau with his keys and pocketknife. She is heavy with sleep and answers in murmurs. He finds it "discouraging that his wife — the sole object of his existence — showed so little interest in things that concerned him." He has forgotten the bonbons he promised the boys. He goes into the next room to check on them, decides Raoul has a high fever, and reports back. Edna is sure he doesn't. Pontellier insists, accuses her of habitual neglect, and tells her if it isn't a mother's place to look after children, whose is it.

Edna goes into the next room. She comes back, sits on the edge of the bed, and refuses to answer him. Léonce finishes his cigar and is asleep within thirty seconds. By then Edna is fully awake. She slips on satin mules, goes out onto the porch, and begins to cry in the wicker chair. The mosquitoes feast on her bare feet and arms. "An indescribable heaviness, which seemed to rise from some unfamiliar place in her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish." She cannot have said why. Such moments were not uncommon in her married life; they had never before counted for much against the abundance of her husband's kindness. The little stinging creatures finally break the mood.

The next morning Pontellier is up early for the wharf and the steamboat back to the city; he will not be seen again until Saturday. He gives Edna half the money he won at Klein's; she likes money and accepts it with pleasure. The boys tumble around him begging for things to be brought back. He kisses her goodbye. A few days later a box arrives from New Orleans — the finest fruits, pâtés, sweet syrups, and bonbons in abundance. Edna shares it generously at the pension. The ladies, "selecting with delicate, eager fingers," all declare Mr. Pontellier "the best husband in the world." Edna is "obliged to agree that she knew of none better."