The Bostonians

Basil can refuse to see Mrs. Luna at her home, but cannot ignore her in public. Basil offers to find her a seat, and she laughs that she did not go there to see “that chatterbox” Verena (199), but to see him.

Mrs. Luna asks Basil to sit with her on the couch outside the music-room, and Basil reluctantly does so. He struggles to avoid being rude—as “a gallant Mississippian” (200), he should “do everything a lady asked him” (200). Mrs. Luna explains that Mrs. Burrage, at the behest of her son, invited Verena to speak at her “Wednesday Club” and that Verena intends to stay with Mrs. Burrage after Olive returns to Boston. Mrs. Luna suggests Mrs. Burrage does not care about the cause and only is interested in Verena because inviting her to speak makes the Wednesday Club seem intellectual. She also suggests that Verena would marry Mr. Burrage were it not for Olive, who wants “to keep her, above all, for herself” (202).

Basil jumps when he hears Verena begin to speak; Mrs. Luna laughs and chastises him for considering leaving her alone. Basil feels obligated to stay with Mrs. Luna unless another man takes his place. He offers to find her a chair in the music-room, but she refuses. He wonders how Mrs. Luna could not see “that she was making him hate her” (203).

Mrs. Luna suspects Basil has secretly seen Verena and tries to manipulate him into admitting it. She threatens to tell Olive unless he stays with her, telling him she is “determined to keep” him (204). Finally, he tells her he will have to “resign himself to forfeiting her good opinion” (204) and walks off. Mrs. Luna cries out that she is “insulted” (204). He does not see her for the rest of the night.

Verena does not use notes and speaks like “a singer spinning vocal sounds to a silver thread” (205). Though Basil finds the content of her speech “ridiculous” (206), she is “none the less charming for that” (206). He considers the speech bad and believes only Verena’s beauty makes it interesting. He realizes that he is in love with her and believes that the weakness of her argument means that she is “meant for something divinely different—for privacy, for him, for love” (209).

When the speech is over, the party disperses for dinner. Despite the fact that he does not often have the opportunity to eat a fine meal, Basil thinks only of making sure Verena has eaten. He finds her with Mr. Burrage. Basil believes “not a word of” Verena’s speech (210), but “it doesn’t make any difference” (210). It makes a difference to Verena, who comments that Basil is hard to convert and that he will be “left behind” (211). Basil tells her that she will “come back to console” him (211). Mr. Burrage, in contrast, believes in their cause and is Verena’s “most gratifying convert” (211).

A benefactor distracts Verena, and Basil reluctantly prepares to leave. He finds Mrs. Burrage in the music-room with Olive, who rebuffs his attempts to compliment her on Verena’s success. When Basil asks Olive for her address, Olive accuses him of wanting to visit so he can mock Verena. Basil is frustrated that Olive always tries to “give him the air of being in the wrong” (215) and wonders if “that was the kind of spirit in which women were going to act when they had more power” (215).

The next day, Mrs. Luna visits Olive. The two discuss the mystery of who invited Basil to Mrs. Burrage’s. Olive is disappointed that her sister has not managed to marry Basil—the harm he can do as her brother-in-law is far less than what he threatens unmarried. Mrs. Luna claims Basil will not stop contacting her and that she cannot marry someone who “dogs [her] footsteps” (217).

Mrs. Luna suggests that Verena herself arranged for Basil to be invited. When Olive asks why Verena would invite someone she has only met twice, Mrs. Luna subtly hints that Basil and Verena met more than that. She suggests Verena had Mrs. Burrage invite Basil without telling Olive and that Mrs. Burrage is covering for Verena. Olive is unnerved to think that everyone around her is lying.

Olive is skeptical of Mrs. Luna’s insistence that Basil is pursuing Verena to hurt Mrs. Luna for rejecting him. She believes that Mrs. Luna wants “to do both him and the girl an ill turn” (219) after Basil spurned her advances. Olive deduces that Mrs. Luna wants her to “interfere” (219), which she is tempted to do anyway. However, sensing “there was distinct danger in the air” (218), Olive refrains from sharing her thoughts. Instead, she asks Mrs. Luna why Basil’s flirting with Verena would hurt Mrs. Luna. Mrs. Luna declares that since Verena is “everything” to Olive and Olive is “everything” to Mrs. Luna, obviously drawing Verena from Olive would make Mrs. Luna “suffer” (219). Olive sees through this fabrication but once again does not contradict her.

Mrs. Luna has no proof of Verena and Basil’s relationship, except seeing them flirt the night before. She insists she does not care and that she is merely warning “Olive to look out” (219). Olive once again does not express her true feelings, especially since she is “intensely eager to profit by her warning” (220).

Verena is out with Mr. Burrage. When she returns, Olive will take her to appointments she has scheduled to prevent her from seeing Basil. She also intends to inform Verena that she wants them to return to Boston the next day. Verena has already agreed not to stay with Mrs. Burrage after Olive returns to Boston, a sacrifice for Verena.

When Verena returns, she shares all she saw when out with Mr. Burrage. Olive recalls an incident in which she complained that Verena does not “dislike men as a class” (223): Verena responded that she does not “dislike them when they are pleasant” (223). Olive herself “dislike[s] them most when they were least unpleasant” (223).

Olive asks Verena how Basil came to be at Mrs. Burrage’s house, and Verena casually tells her that she invited him. Verena had not told Olive because Olive dislikes him. Verena grows concerned that if Olive continues to ask questions, she will be forced to lie about having seen Basil in Cambridge; she does not want to reveal “the only secret she had in the world” (224). When Olive asks how Verena knows Basil’s address, Verena, after hesitation, tells her that Basil wrote to her once. Olive is unnerved.

As they go on their appointments, Verena contemplates how much possibility is in New York. She is asked to give more speeches, but refrains from scheduling them because she knows Olive wants to leave. In the carriage, she tells Olive about the letter Basil wrote her. She does not understand why, of all the letters Verena receives from men, Olive “should attach such importance to this one” (226). Olive tells her that Verena is the one attaching importance to it, for she went out of her way to hide it. When Verena tells Olive that Olive has “such a fearful power of suffering” (226), Olive scornfully accuses Verena of being “not made to suffer” (227) but rather “to enjoy” (227).

After Olive continues to question her, Verena suggests they leave New York the next day. Olive concedes. Verena considers this sacrifice “penance” (228) for having been dishonest with Olive about Basil. They go to dinner and then to the opera, and Verena enjoys herself.