56 pages • 1 hour read
Willa CatherA Lost Lady
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1923A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 8-9
Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary
Niel meets Judge Pommeroy and Captain Forrester at the train station when they return to Sweet Water. Together with Mrs. Forrester, they all sit down to talk about the trip. Captain Forrester announces to his wife that he is now poor, with only the house and his pension to leave her after his death. Mrs. Forrester turns pale but says that they will manage.
Judge Pommeroy says that Captain Forrester acted admirably, liquidating his assets to pay the depositors of the failed bank in Denver. Captain Forrester looks outside the window, commenting that it is good that Mrs. Forrester watered the roses, then goes to lie down.
Judge Pommeroy explains that the bank depositors were all working-class men who had put their money into the bank because they trusted Captain Forrester. The other directors were all young businessmen who refused to put up the cash to make good on the bank deposits. Instead, “they claimed that the bank was insolvent, not through unwise investments or mismanagement, but because of a nation-wide financial panic, a shrinking in values that no one could have foreseen” (50). These men only offered 50 cents on the dollar to the depositors. Captain Forrester refused to cause the depositors such losses, so he paid the difference from the sale of his stocks and government bonds. Judge Pommeroy says that it pained him to see Captain Forrester in this situation. He says that perhaps he was not the right person to have accompanied Captain Forrester, that perhaps the younger breed of lawyer like Ivy Peters could have helped save more of the captain’s wealth for Mrs. Forrester. Judge Pommeroy finishes by saying that he is proud of Captain Forrester and proud to know him.
Mrs. Forrester’s face flushes, and she assures Judge Pommeroy that she understands: “You were quite right, Judge. I wouldn’t for the world have had him do otherwise for me” (51). Looking at Niel, she says that she knows the captain, as if trying to convince Niel of her statement. She then leaves the room to arrange for their lunch.
Judge Pommeroy tells Niel that he is glad that he decided not to be a lawyer, given that it is no longer an honorable career. Niel asks if the Forresters are really going to be poor, and his uncle says that all they will have left is their home.
Mrs. Forrester goes up to tell Captain Forrester that lunch is ready. She calls for help, and Niel goes into the room, where Captain Forrester has had a stroke. Captain Forrester remains bedridden for three weeks, and Niel helps care for him. Mrs. Forrester is busy caring for her husband and writing letters of thanks to concerned friends. One day Cyrus Dalzell, the president of the Colorado & Utah railroad, comes to visit. Mrs. Forrester welcomes him and jokes graciously with him. Dalzell leaves cases of port and sherry before leaving. He shares that he is looking forward to having the Forresters stay with his family in Colorado Springs during the winter, saying, “We saw last winter that we couldn’t do anything without our Lady Forrester” (53). Mrs. Forrester is touched by his kindness, though her thanks are said with a heartbreaking quality to them.
Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary
Captain Forrester leaves his bed, but he now drags a foot when he walks, and his left arm is not fully functional. Because his speech is slurred, he does not speak much.
In August, Niel is ready to leave for Boston, where he will take his entrance exams at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He waits until the last day before leaving to say goodbye to the Forresters. He chats with the Forresters in their parlor, feeling uncomfortable.
Niel asks Mrs. Forrester if their cook is really leaving to get married and who will help them now. Mrs. Forrester lightly says that she will manage: “We will pass a quiet winter, like an old country couple—as we are!” (55). Niel knows that Mrs. Forrester is afraid of spending the winter shut up in the house, but she appears in command of herself in a way that Niel has never seen before. Mrs. Forrester gives Niel advice and even says that if he runs out of money, they could send him a little.
Though they invite him to stay for dinner, Niel says that he must go and finish packing. Captain Forrester laboriously goes to get a decanter and ceremoniously fills three glasses. He toasts Niel with his customary, “Happy days!” Mrs. Forrester echoes this, smiling, and wishes Niel every success.
As Niel leaves, his spirits are heavy. He wishes he could ask Mrs. Forrester how she could act in such a lowly manner with a man like Ellinger. He wonders if she can recapture her special qualities: “how could she recover herself, and give one—give even him—the sense of tempered steel, a blade that could fence with anyone and never break?” (56).
Part 1, Chapters 8-9 Analysis
Themes of loss and change arise in these chapters. Captain Forrester loses the remainder of his fortune because he cannot allow men who had trusted him with their bank deposits to lose their hard-earned money. Judge Pommeroy explains that Captain Forrester’s integrity would allow no other action: “That was what a man of honour was bound to do, Mrs. Forrester. With five of the directors backing down, he had either to lose his name or save it” (50). In contrast, the young bank directors had no honor and did not care that the poor immigrant workers were losing their life savings, money they had put away to better the lives of their families. Judge Pommeroy compares these young men to Ivy Peters, saying that they lack honor and principles. Ivy, a young lawyer with no scruples, and the young bank directors represent the new breed of men of influence in the West. In contrast, Captain Forrester and Judge Pommeroy are members of a fading breed of gentlemen who are yielding power to the newcomers, though at a cost of honorable conduct. Capitalism’s supplanting of pioneering is represented by Captain Forrester’s deteriorated condition, as he diminishes physically as well as financially after suffering a stroke.
As a result of having to take charge of the household as well as care for him, Mrs. Forrester herself undergoes change. She is trapped now, bound to the Sweet Water house by lack of funds and marital obligations. It appears, however, that Mrs. Forrester wants Niel to know that she loves her husband and appreciates his honorable nature. When she says that she understands Captain Forrester had to give up his fortune, she insists she understands because she knows him and directs that comment at Niel: “As she said this she looked at Niel, on the other side of the room, and her glance was like a delicate and very dignified rebuke to some discourtesy—though he was not conscious of having shown her any” (51). It is probable that Niel gave some indication that he judges Mrs. Forrester harshly for her affair with Frank Ellinger, some subtle sign that she picks up. Mrs. Forrester wants Niel to know that she chooses to remain with her husband, even if it means giving up her wealthy lifestyle. She feels the loss of that life intensely, though, as shown by the sweet sadness in her voice when she thanks Dalzell for inviting her to his home in the winter. She knows that she will not be able to go, given the captain’s illness and their lack of funds.
When Niel comes to say goodbye to the Forresters, there is symbolism in how they sit together: “The Captain was in his big chair in the bay window, in the full glow of the afternoon sun, saying little, but very friendly. Mrs. Forrester, on the sofa in the shadowy corner of the room, talked about Niel’s plans and his journey” (55). Captain Forrester, even though he is in a weakened state, sits out in the open. Mrs. Forrester, though she chats with Niel, conceals herself in the shadows. Niel is entering a new, exciting phase of his life, while Mrs. Forrester talks of herself and her husband as an old couple, hiding much about how this pains her.
Though Niel is leaving, he still struggles with his shattered vision of Mrs. Forrester as the ideal woman. He thinks about the roses he threw into the mud, symbolizing his doubt about her “exquisiteness” and his distrust of the honesty of all beautiful women. When Niel wonders whether Mrs. Forrester can regain the excellence he had imagined in her, whether she can prove her worth not just to “one” but to “him” specifically, this reveals an intensely personal quality to his sense of betrayal.
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