A Respectable Woman by Kate Chopin
... woman, using words as “tête-à-tête” to describe passion between her and Gaston. Mrs. Baroda found Gouvernail puzzling but at the same time lovable and inoffensive. She attempts to get Gouvernail to show interest in her but when that fails she decides to show more interest in him. Chopin does this by showing how Mrs. Baroda finds “that Gouvernail took no manner of exception to her action, she imposed her society upon him, accompanying him in his idle strolls to the mill and walks along the batture.” The reader could suggest that Mrs. Baroda is attempting to play coy but in reality wants more from Gouvernail. The depth of the attraction actually terrifies her, because she is a respectable woman with a nice husband and a good home, and she is certainly not accustomed to feeling these sorts of emotions. She knows that he possesses a quality that she does not see often and it is that quality that attracts her to him. She lives a high profile life and has to exhibit that image to people in her society. Gouvernail on the other hand, lives a normal life and has such passion. It is the same passion that Mrs. Baroda desires and never gets from Gaston. The tone of Gouvernail's voice when he does speak is seductive even though he clearly isn't trying to seduce her, and as he sits down beside her in the garden on a particularly beautiful, romantic night, she is filled with the most unaccountable passion: "She wanted to reach out her hand in the darkn...