Summary

Bertha Young is a very youthful thirty. She feels like running instead of walking, like dancing, and like laughing at nothing. She has feelings of bliss, and they fill her with satisfaction. Why, she reasons, should one keep such feelings bottled up?

She returns to her home and finds that she has forgotten her key, a common occurrence for her, and must be let in by the housekeeper, Mary. She asks about the baby's nurse and inquires as to whether the fruit has come. She asks Mary to bring the fruit to the dining room so she can arrange it before she goes upstairs.

She takes off her coat in the chilly dining room so she will not feel at all restrained, and looks at herself in a mirror and sees a radiant woman full of excitement, waiting for something wonderful...