Summary

At the outset of “Futures”, Mildred Bevel’s first person diary, the narrator was a patient at a hospital in Switzerland. She described her nurse’s brusque manner, the church bells she heard from her room, and Andrew’s attempts to comfort her while asking business questions. When he returned from Zürich, Andrew arranged a picnic for them and inquired after Mildred’s treatment plan. Shortly after he was off to Zurich again, partly for business and “part[ly] [because] he [found Mildred’s] illness unbearable” (368). Mildred noted her morphine treatments, mused on the word hurt, and answered her husband’s questions about Kolbe and Lenbach. She felt guilty for making a jab that his family’s country home, La Fiesolana, was kitschy and allowed him to give her a bracelet to compensate.

Despite her fatigue, Mildred had dinner at the restaurant for...