The Professor's House

The St. Peters and the Marselluses travel to Chicago. Against his better judgment, St. Peter allows Louie to pay for his and Lillian’s rooms at a fancy hotel. At the opera, St. Peter remarks to his wife that they should have died young and passionate together. Lillian replies that “it wasn’t the children who came between us” (52). St. Peter is shocked to discover that Lillian has also been feeling the distance between them and he reflects that “[t]he heart of another is a dark forest” (53). The birthday dinner for Rosamond is a success. After St. Peter’s lecture, St. Peter wishes that Louie had not invited three of his colleagues to attend.

Back in Hamilton, the weather is bitterly cold, and Lillian tries to dissuade St. Peter from working in the old house. Now that the rest of the structure is unoccupied, the gas stove will be the only source of heat, and she doesn’t believe that it will be safe. St. Peter says he’s gotten headaches from the gas fumes before and has always recovered. Still, Lillian finds his insistence “perverse,” and doesn’t understand why they’re still paying rent on the old house. The Professor is defensive and claims this is “almost” his “only extravagance.