Their only Way by Edgar Saltus
Ketletas, married to the beautiful heiress Helen, finds his wife polite, hospitable, and admired as a hostess but coldly unresponsive to any affection. After a dance, when he embraces her, she asks him not to "muss" her, provoking him to smash a gilt chair in frustration. She rings for a servant and withdraws, leaving Ketletas humiliated. That night, unable to sleep despite a full day of riding and dancing, he thinks of Cally (Cagliostro), a Harvard friend now a physician, and recalls Gautier's story "Avatar," about a man who consults a physician over an unrequited love. The next day Ketletas visits Cally and describes his marital trouble. Cally advises that Helen, being young and sensitive, is like a violin that must be played by an artist rather than an artisan, and suggests Ketletas cultivate tact, feign indifference, and provoke jealousy rather than display temper. When Ketletas objects that he isn't cut out to be such an "artist," Cally proposes another method: introducing pathogenic bacilli into Helen's tea to induce a fever that would empty her mind, after which he could remold her thoughts and affections to suit Ketletas, much as the philosopher Condillac imagined educating a mind from nothing. Ketletas is startled and refuses, accusing Cally of being as devilish as the wizard in Gautier's tale; Cally jokes that he'd rather be called "modern." Ketletas leaves, declaring he will "disinfect" himself of the conversation by riding in the Park. In the Park, distracted by thoughts of his wife, Ketletas's horse shies and he suffers a bad fall, resulting in a fractured skull. He is carried home, and Helen summons Cally, who examines him and pronounces the diagnosis grave. When Helen anxiously asks if he will die, Cally rebukes her, falsely telling her that Ketletas had confided how happy she made him and implying his injury stems from her coldness; he also tells her, untruthfully, that he had offered to make her "plastic" to Ketletas's will through the bacilli scheme, but that Ketletas nobly refused and rode off to his accident instead. Helen is devastated, and Cally leaves her in tears. Ketletas sinks into a long, deathlike unconsciousness before slowly reviving, tended by a nurse and Cally. As he recovers, Helen appears at his bedside and confesses she has been wrong, saying his accident and what Cally told her made her realize her feelings. She asks his forgiveness, embraces him, and no longer objects to being "mussed." She explains that she never understood love before, and now believes love is fundamentally pity, since it was his suffering, not any calculated approach, that finally moved her. Ketletas privately disagrees with her definition but says nothing, choosing instead to answer her with a kiss, which he regards as his only true way of responding.
By Edgar Saltus · First published 1890 · Genre: Romance, Domestic Fiction, Psychological Fiction · 3,620 words
First lines
That night, when the last guest had gone, Ketletas, approaching his wife, put an arm about her. With her hair done up with opals and her dress looped with diamonds, in the brilliant room she shone. But undulantly she backed and smiled and said -- and civilly enough: "Would you mind not mussing me?"
What this Textopian page supports
Their only Way is listed on Textopian as a short story by Edgar Saltus, dated 1890 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Edgar Saltus
- Date: 1890 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Romance, Domestic Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Literary Fiction, Social Commentary
- Length: 3,620 words
- Structure: 1 section, 81 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Their only Way by Edgar Saltus
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Romance — The narrative centers on a marriage between estranged spouses and culminates in the emotional and romantic transformation of Helen, making the development of love between them the primary plot driver.
- Domestic Fiction — The work is entirely situated within household and social settings, exploring the intimate dynamics of married life, spousal conflict, and the private sphere of upper-class domestic relationships.
- Psychological Fiction — The narrative deeply examines emotional states, internal conflicts, and the psychology of love and indifference, including Cally's analysis of human consciousness and Helen's psychological barriers to affection.
- Literary Fiction — The sophisticated narrative voice, complex philosophical digressions, refined prose style, and thematic depth regarding human nature and morality distinguish this as serious literary rather than commercial fiction.
Tags
unrequited love · marriage estrangement · emotional coldness · pity as redemption · occultism · occultist physician · moral temptation · manipulation and virtue · jealousy tactics · New York · Gilded Age society · high society