Husband Timeline and Summary

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Husband Timeline and Summary

  • As the story begins, the husband is taking an unusually long amount of time to stash the luggage in the train compartment. He finally finishes, and turns his attention to his wife.
  • He makes some generic exclamations about how they're married.
  • When his wife worries about the marriage and all the unsuccessful marriages around the world, the husband tries to convince her it's not worth thinking about.
  • He answers a question his wife asks him about how her sister and her friend looked at the wedding: he didn't really get a look at the sister, but he thought the friend was extremely attractive.
  • This provokes an argument, where the wife accuses the husband of disliking her family, while he insists that he does like them.
  • After this debate peters out, the husband says (after his wife asks him) that her new hat is "probably great", but he prefers the old, blue one. This starts a fresh argument, where they accuse each other of having a thing for (in the husband's case) Louise, the wife's friend, and (in the wife's case) Joe Brooks, a salesman.
  • The husband manages to end the argument by apologizing for what he said about how Louise looked at the wedding.
  • He discusses what they'll do when they get to New York and suggests getting dinner and going to a show. This leads to a near-argument, as the wife says she's going to need to write some letters when they get in. The husband is irritated by this suggestion—since, implicitly, he expected they'd be having sex.
  • Instead, they decided they're not going to go to a show or write letters—they'll stay in and do whatever they want (meaning that they'll consummate the marriage).
  • They make up (and make out or something) in the ensuing silence. They promise not to fight anymore.
  • Despite this, the hat argument starts up again, after the wife says she feels bad her husband hates her hat. The husband ends the argument by making some more generic exclamations about how they're a brand-new married couple.