Porticoes (The Pretext)

In Wentworth there are “older halls” which are equipped with “scant porticoes” (Lewis, 1968, p. 641).

Similar to the picture, there are only a few porticoes (“scant porticoes” (Lewis, 1968, p. 641)) on the older halls of the university. The scant porticoes become “the colonnades of classic temples” (Lewis, 1968, p. 641) which also happens because of the light of the sunset over Wentworth as Mrs. Margaret Ransom and Guy Dawnish leave Hamblin Hall (Lewis, 1968, p. 641). This, too, is just a more poetic way to describe the actual scenery but it also helps the reader to imagine the situation and to express a rather romantic setting. Imagining these descriptions of the buildings gives the reader an impression how much Edith Wharton must have liked architecture and how she was impressed by it.

Sources:

Lewis, R. W. B. (1968). The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.