Important Quotes Explained. Mini Essays Suggested Essay Topics. Characters Mattie Silver. Previous section Zenobia Zeena Frome. Against the dark background of the kitchen she stood up tall and angular, one hand drawing a quilted counterpane to her flat breast, while the other held a lamp.
As the dance ends, Ethan first hears and then sees Mattie emerge, but he shrinks back in the shadows to avoid initiating contact. The crowd thins out rapidly, and Mattie is left wondering what has kept Ethan from coming to meet her.
Ethan, still hanging back, observes Mattie seeming to waver, and wonders whether she will go with Eady or refuse his attentions. After unhitching the horse from its post and setting the cutter in motion, Eady confidently calls out to Mattie to hop in.
She politely declines. When Eady attempts to pick her up by linking arms with her, she draws away gracefully. She is genuinely caught off guard by his trick and lets out a peal of laughter that thrills Ethan.
Ethan says they can sled there the following night if the moon is out. Mattie mentions that Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum, a young engaged couple, nearly collided with the big elm at the bottom of the hill when they were sledding.
Left at an impasse, the couple drops the subject wordlessly, and Ethan and Mattie continue on their way. Mattie is Zeena Frome's cousin. Her father had been the envy of relatives; he'd moved to Connecticut, married, and led everyone to believe his business ventures were successful. After his death, the family found out that he had mismanaged the money they had invested in his business ventures.
As a result, their money was gone. The shame of this revelation contributed to the death of Mattie's mother soon after the death of her father. At age 20, Mattie was left alone with only fifty dollars from the sale of her piano.
She worked at odd jobs, and it was not long before she became ill. Mattie's relatives punished her for her father's mismanagement of their money by refusing to give her financial assistance.
Zeena, however viewed Mattie's impoverishment as an opportunity and invited Mattie to move to Starkfield. Mattie became Zeena's indentured servant, working as Zeena's aide in exchange for a roof over her head and food to eat.
During the year that Mattie lives with the Fromes it is apparent that Mattie is "quick to learn, but forgetful and dreamy. Mattie's personality contrasts with that of Zeena.
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