Summary

This short story centers on a man named Woburn. The story subdivides into two parts, which appear in a way separated from each other. Woburn, the main character is the only thing connecting those parts.

The setting of the story is New York in the late 19^th century. The protagonist, Woburn, is a young bachelor who has lost all his money to unsuccessful investments. However, his financial situation does not detain him from being infatuated by Miss Talcott, a wealthy young woman from the upper class.

The story starts with Woburn leaving the Gildermere ballroom at three o'clock in the morning. Before he is able to step into the icy night of Fifth Avenue, he had to remind the footman to give him his own coat, and not someone else's. Thanks to his determination, which Woburn is quite fond of, he is handed over his fur lined coat and is able to face the cold weather and his voyage, which he has planned for the upcoming morning.

Still standing beneath the porch Woburn notices the carriages waiting in line before the entrance, overlaid with shining umbrellas. The cold wind is announcing frost just before dawn. By now, even the puddles in the pavement are slowly turning into ice.

As he is leaving the location, Woburn turns up his coat collar and puts his hands into his coat pocket.

While he is walking he is paying attention to the ladder-like doorsteps, the eerie tracery of trees near St. Luke's, the massive Cathedral and the shabby view over the long side streets.

In all probability, he is looking at it all for the last time, which makes the slightest detail seemingly more important to Woburn's eyes. Even the brownstone house fronts appear more glamours to him.

It was a peculiar whim that had led him to the Gildermere ball tonight. The same oddness, with which he is observing his surroundings while walking down the road, reflecting on the ball he has just left.

None of the guests he has met earlier, who were looking at him in friendly recognition, will remember him. The memory of him will have slipped their minds by tomorrow. Except for Miss Talcott, the girl he came to see. He wonders what she might think of him. She is very specific when it comes to classifications of life. Under no circumstances, do the good and the bad clash with each other, according to her perception of life.

Woburn justifies her inability to understand the complexity of the moral spectrum because of her youth, her upbringing and the environment she lives in. In fact, the whole ballroom was flushed with views like Miss Talcott's.

Although Woburn is aware of the advantage of veiling crudities behind materialism and reflects on that thought, he cannot help but admit that it is exactly that materialism which has produced those young girls he admires. His credo is that you only get what you are willing to pay for. If one wants something exclusive, one has to pay the price for it.

Besides her opinions about good and bad, Woburn enjoys listening to Miss Talcott, especially her vivid ideas, which have not the slightest connection to the actual world. She is a charming woman without any kind of affectations.

Woburn's own life had provided him with a father who lost the family's property to his inability to do any kind of business. After the death of the father his mother and sister, resentful of his final evasion, got rid of all amenities.

For Woburn, poverty means dreadful food, unsightly furniture, complaints, and accusations.

Those circumstances made the company of the vibrant Miss Talcott more meaningful to him. He was captured by the glowing atmosphere where life seems easy.

His plan is simple. In order to become a wealthy man he has to marry Miss Talcott sooner or later. In order to do so he has had to spent a lot of time with – and a lot of money for her. This is the part where his difficulties began, because a wealthy girl has certain needs and demands. In trying to make her happy and earning her affection he spent his year's salary in only four months. Then he started investing his father's heritage, a few thousand dollars which helped him over the next few months. He noticed the growing devotion of Miss Talcott towards him. Therefore he had to remain financially stable, especially then, when the goal was within his reach. Woburn borrowed five thousand dollars from a friend in order to be able to invest. Unfortunately the marked dropped and he eventually lost everything.

Out of options, Woburn decides to betray the bank he was working at for several years.

Woburn plans to escape and to start a new life in Halifax the next morning.

After work he goes back to his bachelor lodging, which he was able to set up thanks to his successful speculations in the past. Also, he wanted to firstly get away from the dismal atmosphere back at his mother's house and secondly to be able to host Miss Talcott and her friends. Therefore he needed an appropriate location.

Back at his cabin he tosses each and every note he had ever received from Miss Talcott into the fire, even her photograph. He spends the rest of his night dining out and watching a theater play. Around midnight, he finds himself again strolling across Fifth Avenue, thinking about Miss Talcott and decides to go and see her for the last time. On his way to the still ongoing Gildermere ball, he again observes every building he passes with a sudden distinctness. Every one of them seems to be made of such specific details he has never noticed before.

Once he arrives in the ballroom the urge to see Miss Talcott subsides as quickly as it had come. Instead, Woburn remains in the doorway, studying the people around him who now seem like strangers to him. Something within him had shifted. He no longer wants to be part of that glittering world or to be amongst those soulless puppets who are living a shallow, unauthentic and artificial life.

Tomorrow, his crime will be discovered and just like that his fear of being judged by these people he once had admired and looked up to, vanishes.

Miss Talcott passes Woburn on an arm of another man, named Collerton. Woburn watches her as she is giving Collerton that sort of smile he thought was only reserved for his eyes. Seeing that, Woburn feels confirmed that Collerton is considered a suitable match for Miss Talcott to marry.

However, he is sure that if he came back in ten years as a wealthy businessman with a beard and a yacht, they would all forget about the crimes he will be judged by tomorrow, because morality is nothing but an agreement.

Still observing Miss Talcott, Woburn notices that she is surveying the room, looking for someone specifically and when she finally spots him, she walkes up to him, presenting him with a Legion of Honor. They look at each other for a brief moment, not saying a word. After that Woburn decides to leave.

Near Broadway he starts to search for a hotel, since he had already dropped his latchkey into his letterbox.

II

As Woburn enters the hotel he has chosen, he wakes up the night clerk who then demands two dollars fifty of him. A man in shirt sleeves is called to guide Woburn to his room. There, Woburn seats down at a writing table, listening to the noises outside. Although he is very tired, he is afraid to oversleep the time of the steamer's departure. In order to prevent that from happening, he chooses the most uncomfortable chair in the room, to prevent himself from falling asleep.

Suddenly, a noice in the adjacent room alerts him. It is the sound of a sobbing woman. Woburn listens for a while to her expressed grief until the sound of a clicking pistole makes him jump out of his chair. After he glimpses through the keyhole on the door, which separates the two rooms, he crashes the door to interrupt the attempted suicide of Ruby Glenn, the young woman on the other side of this door.

She is not amused abut his endeavor to stop her, but Woburn remains steadfast and starts to ask her some questions. He is determined to help her. Soon she starts to open up and tells him her story.

Ruby had married a man named Joe Glenn and moved from Detroit to a little place called Hinksville. Soon, she grew tired of that town and also of her mother-in-law, who thought very poorly of Ruby. Joe did nothing to protect his wife from the unfair treatment of his mother, which led to a big dissatisfaction on the part of Ruby. When the handsome publicist Arthur Hacker came into the picture and grew fond of her, she decided to run away with him.

Her new life ended after four months. One day, as she had came back from shopping she found a note in which Arthur confessed that he was actually married. Ruby never saw him again.

She started to realize how good her former life was with Joe and decided to try everything to get him back. She wrote letter after letter, but each of them remained unanswered. The reason for that was Joe Glenn's mother who forbid him to respond.

Ruby's only chance now, according to her, is for him to see her again. But since she has no money left and was not willing to accept money from a friend of Arthur's, she feels the pistol is her only way out.

After listening to her story, Woburn tells her that he will take her to the station and buy her a ticket back to Hinksville. He adds that Joe then could then return the money.

Another story about Joe, reveals that he is actually a man of character.

Woburn tells her to get everything ready. He steps back into his room to put on his fur coat. Outside the hotel, Woburn organizes a hansom to take them to the station. There, he buys the ticket and accompanies Ruby to the platform where they said goodbye.

Afterwards, Woburn returns to his lodgings where he locks away Ruby's pistol and throws the key in the fire. Then he leaves the hotel and instead of going straight down to the harbor, makes his way to a big, granite building were he was already expected by the members of the firm.