Summary

The day following her reflection in the library and her discussion of the Elwell case with her husband, Mary is happy to feel as though all has returned to normal. "One of the strangest things she was afterward to recall out of all the next day's incredible strangeness," the narrator says, "was the sudden and complete recovery of her sense of security" (10-11). Mary wakes up, enjoys her breakfast, and leaves her husband working at his desk to go for a walk around the house. Mary travels around the house slowly, taking inventory of the shrubbery and landscaping in order to plan for the upcoming seasons. Having learned that the gardener she was supposed to meet has not arrived, she continues her walk, taking in the sights of the house from different angles. "She had never before had so deep a sense of...