Simile: "Just a tiny vellicating muscle in the corner of the left eye, like a secret wink" (28).
Mrs. Foster is described outright in the very first sentence as having a compulsive fear of not being punctual. This psychological state of fear of being late manifests itself physically in a nervous twitch with a figurative description that will turn out to be more literal than it seems. The "secret wink" suggests that Mrs. Foster's fear could transform into something more knowing and clandestine by the end of the story.
Simile: “He was somehow like a squirrel standing there - a quick clever old squirrel from the Park" (29).
The narrator, filtered through Mrs. Foster's perspective, describes her husband in a number of ways: he resembles Andrew Carnegie, but he is also compared to a goat, and in this particular instance, to a squirrel. The combination of these comparisons is emblematic of Mr. Foster's deceptive character: on the outside, he exists with the propriety and composure of other notable men, while in reality he is manipulative and conniving in a way that makes him seem, to his wife, non-human.
