Mary Boyne (Afterward)

Mary Boyne is a woman, married to Edward Boyne and a friend of Alida Stair (Wharton 342). She lived with her husband in New York until his business forced them to move from New York to Waukesha in the Middle West. She didn’t like it there but had to stay for fourteen years until finally Ned’s Blue Star Mine earned him a fortune. The couple left America and bought a house in England with this fortune (Wharton 344). Mary plans to enjoy her time at Lyng with painting and gardening (Wharton 344).

Despite the fact that she occupies herself with other things and doesn’t care about her husband’s business, Mary definitely notices that something seems to bother her husband (Wharton 345). That this matter is connected to the person she sees from the roof together with Ned, is something she doesn’t recognize until the end of the story.

Mary Boyne is a woman that trusts her husband blindly and she justifies said trust due to the fact that had never betrayed her trust. This means that she shows no interest in her husband’s business affairs. Ironically enough, she deprecates the American Wife’s detachment from the business of her husband. She is not dumb, but always had difficulties to focus on her husband’s reports about his transactions (Wharton 353).

In chapter two she receives a letter that contains a part of the Waukesha Sentinel, a newspaper. In said part is enough information to make her panic by allowing her to gather information about the fact that there was some kind of business dispute about the Blue Star Mine. A man named Bob Elwell had brought suit against her husband and the shocked Mary immediately confronts her husband about this. But just as quickly as she is brought into turmoil by the newspaper clipping, Edward reassures her that everything is alright, which once more makes Mary believe that her trust in her husband is right (Wharton 352-354).

On the next day, Mary is in the garden because the piping of the hothouse is broken and she is waiting for the gardener along with a specialist from Dorsetshire (Wharton 355). But the person that approaches Mary in the garden first is not the specialist, but a complete stranger. The woman immediately identifies correctly, by his accent, that the stranger is not from England (Wharton 356-357).

As the stranger explains that he wants to see her husband, Mary tells him that he needs an appointment. The stranger, therefore, turns around to leave and as he does so Mary feels bad for being rather rude to a person that has most likely come a very long way just to see her husband. This causes her to rush after him, telling him that her husband is in the library (Wharton 357).

After that, she meets the gardener and the boilermaker, who is the specialist from Dorsetshire she has been waiting for. Sometime afterward Mary goes back into the house occupies herself with calculations concerning the new information the boilermaker gave her until Trimmle reminds Mary that it is time for Luncheon (Wharton 357).

Mary then tries to find her husband in order to have Lunch with him, but she is unable to find him. Therefore, she talks to Trimmle and finds out that Ned had left the house with a stranger. During the conversation with the maid, the usually rather nice Mary Boyne becomes perhaps a bit rude. She shows impatience by cutting her maid off mid-sentence. Due to Trimmle’s well-mannered behavior as a maid, the conversation is quite inefficient as Mary asks Question after question instead of simply demanding that Trimmle should tell her the whole story (Wharton 358-360).

The disappearance of her husband leads her to question the kitchen maid. After this conversation, she realizes that it must have been the same stranger that had approached her earlier that day in the garden (Wharton 360-364). With her husband gone Mary contacted Parvis a Waukesha lawyer whose existence she knew off thanks to an unfinished letter of her husband. She tries to find out more about what had happened to her husband, however, it is useless because Parvis is unable to tell Mary anything (Wharton 365).

In the final chapter, Mary gets to know the truth about what had really happened. Parvis visits her at Lyng and tells her everything about the Blue Star Mine and that her husband was somewhat responsible for Bob Elwell’s death. While Mary processes the new information, she is given a newspaper article from Parvis. In that article, the woman sees a picture of Bob Elwell and identifies him as both, the person she had seen from the roof and the one that had visited her in the garden. And with that not enough, Mary also starts to understand that she had sent the ghost of Bob Elwell to Ned by telling him that her husband was in the library (Wharton 367-373).

Wharton, Edith. "Afterward". The Muse's Tragedy and Other Stories . Ed. Candace Waid. London: Penguin Books, 1992. 342-373. Print.