How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
She skipped, she laughed. Chorb, hunching his back a bit, walked behind her—and it seemed to him that happiness itself had that smell, the smell of dead leaves (15).
The way the seasons are arranged in "Chorb" is interesting; we pass from the Fall, a time of decay, to the Spring, a time of rebirth – except Chorb’s wife has died in the interim.
Quote #2
A pale but jaunty lackey led Chorb down a crooked corridor reeking of dampness and boiled cabbage into a room which Chorb recognized—by the picture of a pink baigneuse in a gilt frame over the bed—as the very one in which he and his wife had spent their first night together (12).
Chorb’s grief is intensified by the details around him; from the trees outside the Kellers’ house to the painting in the hotel room, everything reminds him of his wife.
Quote #3
Her mother, in the meantime, led her closest friends, two by two, to inspect the bedroom meant for the young couple: with tender emotion, whispering under her breath, she pointed out the colossal eiderdown, the orange blossoms, the two pairs of brand-new bedroom slippers—large checkered ones, and tiny red ones with pompons—that she had aligned on the bedside rug, across which a Gothic inscription ran: "WE ARE TOGETHER UNTO THE TOMB." (12).
Everything is spectral and eerie in this story – even the romantic trinkets intended for a wedding night. This creates an other-worldly atmosphere for the reader.
Quote #4
It was on that couch that he had slept on his nuptial night. She, on the regular bed, could be heard breathing with the even rhythm of a child. That night he had kissed her once—on the hollow of the throat—that had been all in the way of lovemaking (13).
Just as his interaction with the prostitute is far from sexual, so is Chorb’s interaction with his wife. His comments that her death was in some way "pure" seem to particularly resonate here – there is a purity in her death, yes, but also in Chorb’s love for his wife.
Quote #5
He nodded. Only much later, having glanced at her casually, Chorb noted with indifference that she was pretty enough, though considerably jaded, and that her bobbed hair was blonde (23).
Because Chorb has singled this prostitute out to act as a substitute for his wife, her looks don’t matter. It’s clear that this interaction has nothing to do with sex or even physical attraction at all.