Chapter VI

by Kate Chopin

　　Edna Pontellier could not have told why, wishing to go to thebeach with Robert, she should in the first place have declined, andin the second place have followed in obedience to one of the twocontradictory impulses which impelled her.A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,--thelight which, showing the way, forbids it.At that early period it served but to bewilder her. It movedher to dreams, to thoughtfulness, to the shadowy anguish which hadovercome her the midnight when she had abandoned herself to tears.In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize herposition in the universe as a human being, and to recognize herrelations as an individual to the world within and about her. Thismay seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soulof a young woman of twenty-eight--perhaps more wisdom than the HolyGhost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.But the beginning of things, of a world especially, isnecessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing.How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many soulsperish in its tumult!The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering,clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell inabysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inwardcontemplation.The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the seais sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.