Mary Maloney

Mary Maloney, the story's protagonist, is six months pregnant and satisfied with her (from an external perspective) rather banal life with her policeman-husband Patrick, whom she adores. She had "a slow smiling air about her" and was "curiously tranquil." Mary keeps a neat home, and busies herself with preparations for the baby. When Patrick unexpectedly announces that he is ending their marriage, Mary enters a state of shock. She automatically goes to the basement to remove something from the freezer for supper. She takes the first thing she finds — a leg of lamb— carries it back up the stairs, approaches her husband from behind, and strikes him on the head with the frozen leg of lamb. He falls to the floor dead. "The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of the shock." Concern for the well-being of...