Summary
Mrs. Foster has an "almost pathological fear" of being late—so much so that her eye begins to twitch whenever she feels anxious about a delay. It is not fitting with the rest of her character to be a nervous person, but lateness is the one experience that throws her into a state of extreme stress. Mrs. Foster often has to wait on her husband, who seems not to notice her anxiety at all.
It is possible, however, that Mr. Foster knowingly and intentionally attempts to exacerbates his wife's discomfort. While Mrs. Foster does not like to entertain this idea, the extent to which Mr. Foster's own lateness so regularly occurs in their life has led her to wonder whether he enjoys seeing her worked up.
One January afternoon, the Foster's six-story house on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is bustling with activity as Mrs. Foster prepares to catch a plane. She asks the butler, Walker, for the time, and when he tells her, she starts to worry she will be late. She continues to ask Walker for the time and becomes frantic, certain she will miss her plane. Mrs. Foster is traveling to Paris to see their daughter, Ellen, and her grandchildren, whom she has yet to meet.
Finally, Mr. Foster emerges, and Mrs. Foster urges him politely to put his coat on. Mr. Foster decides to wash his hands before departing. When they get outside, Mr. Foster comments that it is foggy outside and Mrs. Foster's flight will likely be cancelled anyway.
Analysis
The beginning of the story helps establish the individual characteristics of Mr. and Mrs. Foster while also cluing readers in to the more nuanced dynamics of their relationship. One notable attribute of the story is that it is written from a third-person limited perspective, with particular attention paid to Mrs. Foster's thoughts. This point of view is significant because it helps frame the rest of the story: Mrs. Foster becomes the clear protagonist, as readers come to sympathize with her anxious experience, but the third-person narrator generates distance between Mrs. Foster and the reader that keeps some of her thoughts a mystery. For example, regarding Mr. Foster's behavior, the narrator says, "On one or two special occasions in the later years of their married life, it seemed almost as though he had wanted to miss the train simply in order to intensify the poor woman’s suffering" (28). Here, the narrator does not confirm but merely suggests that Mr. Foster could be intentionally exacerbating Mrs. Foster's anxiety over being late, mirroring Mrs. Foster's own perspective in which she does wonders but secretly hopes that her husband would not be that cruel. In this way, the narration helps dramatize Mrs. Foster's thoughts without communicating them outright, an element of the story that will become especially important toward its climax when Mrs. Foster's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre.
Besides the obvious attribute of Mr. Foster's character—that he intentionally delays their departure for the airport in order to irritate Mrs. Foster—the beginning of the story provides other details to the reader that point toward his cruelty. When they finally make it to the car, for example, Mrs. Foster expresses concern about missing her flight. Mr. Foster responds by telling her that the weather is foggy and the flight will likely be cancelled anyway, that she need not bother trying to go at all and she should resign herself to that fact. Mr. Foster's complete dismissal of Mrs. Foster's concerns is emblematic of his selfishness, as he exudes an air of superiority over his wife that only contributes to her distress. His declaration that the flight will be cancelled demonstrates his domineering and controlling behavior to which Mrs. Foster often bends. This element of his character helps point the reader toward the likely interpretation that Mr. Foster's persistent lateness is, in fact, intentional, as he derives sadistic pleasure from increasing his wife's anxiety while pretending that he simply does not realize the effect his behavior has on Mrs. Foster's wellbeing.
