Summary
part
1 of the story, the setting, the situation, and the attitudes of the two women
are presented in a manner that suggests a placid, if superficial, friendship of
many years’ standing, with both of the women secretly feeling some pity for
each other’s past life.
Part
2 begins with the tolling of the five o’clock bells and the decision of the two
women to remain on the terrace rather than going in to play bridge. As Grace
Ansley knits, Alida Slade reflects that their own mothers must have had a
worrisome task trying to keep them home safe despite the lure of the romantic
evenings in Rome. Grace agrees, and Alida continues with speculations about the
probability that Barbara will become engaged to the attractive, eligible young
Roman pilot with whom she is spending the evening, along with Jenny and the
second young man. Jenny, Alida reasons, is only a foil for Barbara’s vivacious
charm, and Grace may be encouraging the companionship for that very reason. She
tells Grace of her envy, stating that she cannot understand how the Ansleys had
such a dynamic child while the Slades had such a quiet one. Alida recognizes in
her own mind her envy, and also realizes that it began a long time ago.
As
the sun sets, Alida recalls that Grace was susceptible to throat infections as
a girl and was forced to be very careful about contracting Roman fever or
pneumonia. Then she recalls a story of a great-aunt of Grace, who sent her
sister on an errand to the Forum at night because the two sisters were in love
with the same man, with the result that the unfortunate girl died of Roman
fever. Alida then reveals that she used a similar method to eliminate the
competition she believed existed between herself and Grace when, as young women
in Rome, they both were in love with Delphin Slade. She cruelly reveals that
she wrote a note to Grace imploring a rendezvous in the Colosseum by moonlight,
and signed it with Delphin’s name.
Revealing
her hatred further, she gloats about how she laughed that evening thinking
about Grace waiting alone in the darkness outside the Colosseum, and how
effective the ruse had been, for Grace had become ill and was bedridden for
some weeks. Grace is at first crushed to learn that the only letter that she
ever received from Delphin was a fake, but she then turns the tables on Alida
by assuring her that she had not waited alone that night. Delphin had made all
the arrangements and was waiting for her.
Alida’s
jealousy and hatred are rekindled as she realizes that she has failed to
humiliate Grace Ansley, especially when Grace states that she feels sorry for
Alida because her cruel trick had so completely failed. Alida protests that she
really had everything: She was Delphin’s wife for twenty-five years, and Grace
has nothing but the one letter that he did not write. In the final ironic
epiphany, Grace simply replies that she had Barbara. Then she moves ahead of
Alida toward the stairway.
This
battle of the two women for the integrity of their own status with respect to
the man they both loved ends with the complete victory of the woman who has
appeared to be the weak, passive creature. She moves ahead because she is now
dominant. The source of Barbara’s sparkle is now revealed, and Grace is also
now shown to be a woman who defied conventional morality and social
restrictions to spend a night with the man she loved. Alida Slade is left only
with the dismaying knowledge that she, in her attempt to be hateful and cruel,
actually brought about the meeting that produced the lovely daughter she envies
her friend having.