The third guest in Niagara is Adam. He says that both Edwin and Mary are taking pains to prove that their affection for him is unchanged. But this is a story for public consumption. In fact, tensions are rising. Mary is that much more sure of her claim on Edwin, which makes her bold enough to say openly to him that Adam’s a bit of a bore. Adam talks and talks and talks over anyone who might redirect the conversation. He’s far too interested in hearing his own opinions. What a shame he’s not “like other men,” she tells Edwin, “for then your friendship could be secure.” Implying that since he’s not, it’s not.

How quick Asia would have been to take Adam’s side if only she’d known. Her letters to Jean contain fantasies of Mary going under the Falls or taking a swim in the whirlpool. Every Hamlet needs his Ophelia. When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook.

xviii

Asia tells herself that she’s contented with the small doings of her own establishment. Dolly is endlessly engrossing—she has two teeth and can pull herself to standing!—and Sleeper as attentive as ever. They go to the seaside. She revels in a trip to Baltimore to see old friends. She has trouble making new ones. My heart’s a poor soil for it, she says, and longs only for the dear old faces. She takes Dolly in her pram to see her aunt and grandmother. No one mentions Mother’s time at the Falls. No one speaks of Mary Devlin at all. Mary Devlin Booth.

Asia’s succeeded in driving Edwin and Mary from Philadelphia. Edwin decides he can’t subject Mary to her ferocious enmity and they never do occupy the house he’d rented, leaving it to Mother and Rosalie. Asia tells herself she’s glad of it, so very relieved, although there’s no real victory to be had from an opponent who simply quits the field.

Instead Edwin and Mary move into the new and opulent Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City. Joe goes to see them and comes back with tales that, Joe-like, he seems unaware will cause her pain. The hotel is where the rich and connected stay. It has an enormous dining hall, lobby, and common rooms, all fitted out in deep green and red curtains, rosewood counters, white marble columns, and masses of gilt. In order to access the upper floors, guests ride in the astonishingly modern vertical screw railway, an elevator operated by a steam engine that rotates a gigantic screw to raise and lower the car.