The author returns to the time of the narrator. The narrator has been invited into the house by Ethan Frome so as to avoid a blizzard. He sees the poor condition of the home and how meagerly the family is surviving. A tall woman has prepared some food and has just stoked the fire. A small woman who seems paralyzed tells Ethan that she thought that she would freeze but that Zeena has just woken from a nap and stoked the fire.
After the narrator returns to town the next morning, he talks to various people about his stay at the Frome place. He realizes that many people are curious because they have not been there in many years. Mrs. Hale tells the narrator that she felt that Mattie would have been better off dead......
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