Explore "Souls Belated" by Edith Wharton on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
She stayed there for a long time, in the hypnotized contemplation, / not of Mrs. Cope's present, but of her own past. Gannett, early that / morning, had gone off on a long walk -- he had fallen into the habit of / taking these mountain-tramps with various fellow-lodgers; but even had / he been within reach she could not have gone to him just then. She had / to deal with herself first. She was surprised to find how, in the last / months, she had lost the habit of introspection. Since their coming to / the Hotel Bellosguardo she and Gannett had tacitly avoided themselves / and each other.
She was aroused by the whistle of the three o'clock steamboat as it / neared the landing just beyond the hotel gates. Three o'clock! Then / Gannett would soon be back -- he had told her to expect him before four. / She rose hurriedly, her face averted from the inquisitorial facade of / the hotel. She could not see him just yet; she could not go indoors. She / slipped through one of the overgrown garden-alleys and climbed a steep / path to the hills.