To Paradise

After the dinner, David has a restless night and wakes up late the next morning. He often finds Mondays difficult because he doesn’t have a career; he does some work for the Bingham family foundation and also volunteers, but “the rest of the time he was alone and purposeless” (11). David goes for a walk to ponder the news that he will inherit the Washington Square house. His parents died when he and his siblings were children, at which time they moved into the house with Grandfather Bingham. David loves the house but also finds the idea of living there for the rest of his life overwhelming.

Later that day, Grandfather tells David that he has received a marriage offer. The man who wants to marry David is an older widower named Charles Griffith. Charles comes from a good family, and Grandfather thinks the match is potentially a good one. David has had a few other proposals, but none recently; he has a mysterious illness that he has kept secret, but he wonders if this secret has leaked out and rendered him less desirable. Considering all of these factors, David agrees to meet Charles Griffith. He feels anxiety and fear at the prospect of marrying, beginning a new life stage, and possibly leaving his home in Washington Square.

About six weeks later, it comes time for an annual holiday tradition. The Bingham family funds a school for underprivileged children, and each December, students gather for a festive meal. David and other members of the Bingham family typically attend. In addition to their wealth, the Bingham family has an illustrious history. They can trace their ancestry back to the first individuals who emigrated from England to America; some of David’s ancestors fought for independence from Britain, while others founded the territory known as the “Free States.” The Free States is an autonomous unit encompassing New York and the surrounding area, distinct from “the Colonies.”

Before the gathering, David attends a meeting facilitated by Frances Holson, the family attorney. Under Frances’s supervision, David is meeting Charles for the first time. David finds Charles more attractive than he expected. He is well-educated and well-traveled. Because he is from Massachusetts, he is not accustomed to arranged marriages; the practice is limited to New York and Connecticut, having originated “as a way for the first families who settled the Free States to create strategic alliances and consolidate their wealth” (25). Charles and David also talk about their families, and Charles expresses his hope of having children someday. After the meeting, David reports to his grandfather that he liked Charles and will see him again once he returns from a work trip.

A few weeks later, in mid-December, Charles and David meet again. David asks Charles about his first husband; Charles explains that he loved him and was devastated by his sudden death nine years earlier. Since Charles’s sister lost her own husband a short time later, he has lived with her and helped her raise her children ever since. At Christmas dinner, David’s siblings ask if he plans to marry Charles and if the marriage would mean living in New York. David admits that he still doesn’t know if he wants to marry Charles, and Grandfather reassures him that “you must take your time and not feel bad for doing so” (31).

David asks Grandfather if Charles knows of his illness; He assures him that Charles doesn’t need to know and that this information should have nothing to do with the potential marriage. David is dubious and wonders if Grandfather is eager for him to marry Charles because he does not think anyone better will be interested. Shortly after the new year (1894), David visits the orphanage funded by the family. Many children are orphaned when their parents attempt to flee from the Colonies to the Free States; others are given up by parents living in poverty. Many gay couples in the Free States (including both of David’s siblings) adopt their children from the orphanage. Since infants and toddlers are much more likely to get adopted, older children may spend a long time there, but they receive a good education.

David sometimes teaches art classes to the children. When he arrives, a handsome young man is there giving the children music lessons. The music teacher introduces himself as Edward Bishop, and after Edward leaves, David is left feeling very melancholy.

David goes back to teach another art class a week later and intentionally arrives early, hoping to see Edward again. He is disappointed to learn that music lessons have been moved to a different day. David plans to drop in on the day that Edward is teaching. By the time he arrives, Edward is about to leave the school. David claims to have come to look for a lost sketchbook. He is surprised when Edward invites him to have coffee but readily agrees. The café where they go is crowded and noisy, so Edward suggests they go to his apartment. David is surprised but intrigued, noting Edward’s “free-spiritedness, a blithe disregard for conventions, a dispensing of old modes of behavior and formality” (47).

Edward takes David to his shabby boarding house. David tries to disguise his curiosity, as he has never been in such a place before. He had assumed that Edward was comfortable, if not wealthy, and is surprised to see that Edward lives a very humble life. However, as David and Edward begin to speak, the two men have lots to say to one another.

Over the next few weeks, David repeatedly goes to see Edward, making excuses to his grandfather about where he is spending so much time. David learns that Edward is 23, five years younger than him, and he previously studied music but ran out of money and had to drop out. For the past four years, Edward has been supporting himself doing odd jobs in New York. He enjoys teaching at the orphanage but would like to teach lessons to private clients and has trouble finding work. David and Edward also begin having sex; David has slept with other men before but finds his physical relationship with Edward “extraordinary, as if he were relearning how to walk, or eat, or breathe” (58).

Edward eventually confides to David that he is originally from the Colonies; David is surprised because he doesn’t know anyone from there. The Colonies are racked by violent conflict, impoverished, and more repressive than the Free States (Black people are given few rights there), so people often try to flee as refugees. Edward grew up in Georgia, and when he was almost seven, he, his parents, and his three sisters fled from the Colonies to Philadelphia. They made the journey safely, although they lived in poverty, and his parents died shortly after the emigration. Edward’s sisters now all have stable careers. He says he doesn’t know exactly why it was so important to his parents to leave the Colonies. David is rapidly falling in love with Edward and finds himself fantasizing about a future with his new lover.

In late January, David’s grandfather gives him a letter from Charles Griffith. In the letter, Charles explains why he has not been in touch with David recently. Charles’s family owns part of a fur company, and Charles and his young nephew James went north, close to the Canadian border, to oversee some of the trapping and trading. While visiting a local family, James was involved in a tragic accident and witnessed the death of another young man. Charles has been preoccupied with trying to help his nephew, but he is going to be back in New York soon and wants to see David when he gets there.

David gives his grandfather a summary of what Charles has shared, and Grandfather observes that David has been preoccupied lately. David questions why his grandfather is preoccupied with him getting married, but the older man counters that he only looked into the offer because David had expressed interest in finding a partner. David’s grandfather chastises David for being selfish and tells him to avoid leading Charles on if he doesn’t want to marry him. Grandfather points out that Charles “is a man who has endured great sorrow and illness in his past and has not run from them; he is therefore a man worth considering” (79).

A few days later, David sees Edward and is surprised when Edward nonchalantly states that he is going to Vermont to see his family. One of his sisters is going to have a new baby, and Edward wants to help her. Edward will be away for almost a month and will return at the end of February. Edward’s abrupt departure leaves David wondering if he is disinterested in their relationship. After Edward leaves, Charles Griffith asks David to join him for dinner. David agrees somewhat reluctantly but ends up enjoying the evening he spends with Charles. He leaves without specifying whether he will continue to see Charles and whether he will accept the proposal.

A few days pass, and David does not hear from Edward. David delays seeing Charles again and goes to the boarding house in hopes of getting news about Edward. David asks his grandfather about the woman who owns the boarding house; unaware of the context, David’s grandfather explains that the woman broke from her wealthy family to pursue a romantic relationship with a man from a lower social class. However, her lover betrayed her and stole all of her money. Ever since, she has lived in isolation and sadness.

David is troubled by this story, as it makes him wonder if Edward could have been using him. Haunted by “an echo of another story, a worse story, a story he had heard once but could not, however he tried, recall” (90), David agrees to meet Charles again.