Indian Summer · Chapter
II explained
Colville encounters Mrs.
What happens
Colville encounters Mrs. Bowen and her daughter Effie on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. They reminisce about their past, discuss Mrs. Bowen's widowhood and her life in Florence, and Colville joins them on an errand to Viesseux's Library. The chapter explores Colville's reflections on American girlhood, his appreciation of Mrs. Bowen's character, and his ambivalence about returning to Florence.
Themes in this chapter
American Expatriate Experience
Colville and Mrs. Bowen, both Americans, meet in Florence and discuss their lives abroad, reflecting on the expatriate community and the contrast with their American pasts.
Age and Youth
Colville, at forty-one, reflects on his own aging and the changes in American girlhood, contrasting his youthful freedom with Effie's more constrained upbringing.
Social Convention and Propriety
Mrs. Bowen's ladylike demeanor and Effie's careful deference to her mother illustrate the social conventions governing behavior and propriety in their circle.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Colville
Reflects on his past and his return to Florence; engages in conversation with Mrs. Bowen and Effie.
- Mrs. Bowen
Widowed, living in Florence with her daughter; encounters Colville on the Ponte Vecchio and invites him to visit.
- Effie Bowen
Mrs. Bowen's daughter, recently returned from school in Vevay; polite and deferential to her mother.
Key passages
“Ladylike was the word for Mrs. Bowen throughout—for the turn of her head, the management of her arm from the elbow, the curve of her hand from wrist to fingertips, the smile, subdued, but sufficiently sweet, playing about her little mouth, which was yet not too little, and the refined and indefinite perfume which exhaled from the ensemble of her silks, her laces, and her gloves, like an odorous version of that otherwise impalpable quality which women call style.”
Mrs. Bowen epitomized ladylike grace in every gesture and detail, from her poised movements to her subtle smile and the elegant fragrance of her attire, embodying an intangible quality of style.
Describes Mrs. Bowen's refined and ladylike appearance and demeanor.
“For her daughter there were to be no buggy rides, or concerts, or dances at the invitation of young men; no picnics, free and unchaperoned as the casing air; no sitting on the steps at dusk with callers who never dreamed of asking for her mother; no lingering at the gate with her youthful escort home from the ball—nothing of that wild, sweet liberty which once made American girlhood a long rapture.”
Colville reflects that Effie will miss the freedoms of American girlhood he remembers, such as unchaperoned outings and dances, replaced by a more constrained upbringing.
Colville contrasts his own youthful liberty with Effie's more restricted upbringing in Europe.