Summary

The first few paragraphs tell of a woman, Mrs. Ames, waking up to her day as her husband still sleeps. She thinks about her daily life, which includes keeping herself busy during the day, doing tasks, while her husband is usually not far away, thinking or daydreaming. As she leaves the bedroom, she is met in the hallway at the top of the stairway by her female servant, who has come to inform her that the plumber has arrived.

As she heads to meet the plumber, Mrs. Ames practices introducing herself to him. The reader is then told what Mrs. Ames looks like: that she is youngish and that the light has been extinguished from her eyes.

She explains to the plumber that the leaking toilet started the night before and that she had shut off the main water supply as...