The Old Wives' Tale

Gerald and Sophia are beginning their new life together in Paris, where Gerald worked before. He feels that his inheritance is sufficient to cover their expenses indefinitely, so they’re living in hotels and enjoying the luxuries of Parisian life. Gerald, however, is too lavish with his indulgence, and Sophia, who in her previous life was prone to throwing off restraints, now finds herself in the position of preaching common sense and moderation. Nevertheless, she finds life with Gerald intoxicating and is impressed by his knowledge of the world, especially in a culture that seems unsettling to her sensibilities: “Sophia, thrust suddenly into a strange civilization perfectly frank in its sensuality […] felt mysteriously uncomfortable, disturbed by sinister, flitting phantoms of ideas which she only dimly apprehended” (330).

The main scene in Chapter 2 plays out in a restaurant. Gerald gradually grows more intoxicated and is flouting his pretensions of understanding French society. This irks a man at another table, who challenges Gerald, and their dispute escalates to the point that they step outside to fight. Sophia is left alone in the restaurant, waiting for Gerald’s return, until eventually one of Gerald’s French acquaintances, a journalist named Chirac, offers to escort her back to the hotel. The indignity and embarrassment of this episode breaks the spell of romance. She begins to see Gerald for what he truly is and resents the string of lies on which their relationship was built: “Alone in the bedroom she was a wise and disillusioned woman […]. And had she not gone to Gerald, as it were, over the dead body of her father, through lies and lies and again lies?” (338). Gerald eventually returns with a bloody lip, but instead of apologizing, he scolds her for not waiting for him at the restaurant.

This chapter represents a dark turning point in Gerald and Sophia’s relationship. Gerald decides to attend the spectacle of a public execution, even though he knows the idea displeases Sophia. She feels that she must go along, so they take the train to Auxerre. Gerald secures a room in a hotel overlooking the site of the execution but lies to Sophia about the cost. When the time of the execution comes, Sophia watches from the window of her hotel room and is disturbed by the aspect of the crowd, which she perceives as being ruled by their passions rather than their reason or morals:

She felt like a lost soul, torn too soon from shelter, and exposed for ever to the worst hazards of destiny. Why was she in this strange, incomprehensible town, foreign and inimical to her, watching with agonized glance this cruel, obscene spectacle? (354).

After viewing the execution (a beheading with a guillotine) up close, Gerald feels ill and collapses back in the room. While he’s unconscious, Sophia learns of the shocking price Gerald has paid for the hotel room. This, coupled with her revulsion toward the whole affair, changes her perspective on Gerald: “The deep conviction henceforward formed a permanent part of her general consciousness that he was simply an irresponsible and thoughtless fool!” (356-57). Seeing an envelope of bank notes sticking out of Gerald’s pocket, she seizes them and sews them into the lining of her skirt, giving herself some financial security against Gerald’s spendthrift ways. Gerald never mentions the notes after waking up, assuming he lost them in the crowd in his stupor.

Sophia and Gerald’s relationship is at an end. Gerald’s inheritance, valued at 300,000 francs, has dwindled to 20,000, but he doesn’t change his ways. Sophia recognizes that this experience has changed her or at least brought different aspects of her character to the fore:

It really did seem to her, indeed, that the Sophia whom Gerald had espoused was dead and gone, and that another Sophia had come into her body: so intensely conscious was she of a fundamental change in herself […]. And though this was but a seeming, though she was still the same Sophia more fully disclosed, it was a true seeming (360).

She recognizes now that her marriage was “a calamitous folly” (361), as she and Gerald now bear hard feelings against one another.

Gerald presses her to write to her family requesting money, but she refuses, and he marches off in a huff. Sophia follows, observing that he’s still spending money in his usual manner. As she returns to the hotel where they live, Sophia catches sight of Gerald in a coach with a prostitute. When he returns, they have another fight, and during this argument she discovers that even the beginning of their relationship was built on a lie—that night so long ago, when they found him on New Year’s Eve sitting on their doorstep, he made up the story about being assaulted by ruffians; it was just a ruse to see her and gain her sympathy. Gerald leaves her, this time for good, and she’s shocked to discover that he bilked his friend Chirac out of some money and left her to cover the debt. She goes with Chirac in a carriage to repay the debt at a cashier’s office but, feeling ill, faints into unconsciousness during the ride back.