EDITH WHARTON: Ethan Frome 34 Read the following extract, and then answer the question that follows it: He was still kneeling when his eyes, on a level with the lower panel of the door, caught a faint ray beneath it. Who could be stirring in that silent house? He heard a step on the stairs, and again for an instant the thought of tramps tore through him. Then the door opened and he saw his wife. Against the dark background of the kitchen she stood up tall and angular, one hand drawing a quilted counterpane to her flat breast, while the other held a lamp. The light, on a level with her chin, drew out of the darkness her puckered throat and the projecting wrist of the hand that clutched the quilt, and deepened fantastically the hollows and prominences of her high-boned face under its ring of crimping-pins. To Ethan, still in the rosy haze of his hour with Mattie, the sight came with the intense precision of the last dream before waking. He felt as if he had never before known what his wife looked like. She drew aside without speaking, and Mattie and Ethan passed into the kitchen, which had the deadly chill of a vault after the dry cold of the night. "Guess you forgot about us, Zeena,” Ethan joked, stamping the snow from his boots. "No, I just felt so mean I couldn't sleep.” Mattie came forward, unwinding her wraps, the colour of the cherry scarf in her fresh lips and cheeks. “I'm so sorry, Zeena! Isn't there anything I can do?" "No; there's nothing.” Zeena turned away from her. “You might 'a' shook off that snow outside," she said to her husband. She walked out of the kitchen ahead of them and pausing in the hall raised the lamp at arm's-length, as if to light them up the stairs. Ethan paused also, affecting to fumble for the peg on which he hung his coat and cap. The doors of the two bedrooms faced each other across the narrow upper landing, and tonight it was peculiarly repugnant to him that Mattie should see him follow Zeena. "I guess I won't come up yet awhile,” he said, turning as if to go back into the kitchen. "For the land's sake – what you Zeena stopped short and looked at him. “For the land's sake – what you going to do down here?" "I've got the mill accounts to go over.” She continued to stare at him, the flame of the unshaded lamp bringing out with microscopic cruelty the fretful lines of her face. "At this time o' night? You'll ketch your death. The fire's out long ago." Without answering he moved away toward the kitchen. As he did so his glance crossed Mattie's and he fancied that a fugitive warning gleamed through her lashes. The next moment they sank to her flushed cheeks and she began to mount the stairs ahead of Zeena. "That's so. It is powerful cold down here,” Ethan assented; and with lowered head he went up in his wife's wake, and followed her across the threshold of their room. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Explore how Wharton memorably conveys the tension between the three people at this moment in the novel.