Mrs. Baroda was a little provoked to learn that her husband expected his friend, Gouvernail, up to spend a week or two on the plantation. They had entertained a good deal during the winter; much of the time had also been passed in New Orleans in various forms of mild dissipation. She was looking forward to a period of unbroken rest, now, and undisturbed tete-a-tete with her husband, when he informed her that Gouvernail was coming up to stay a week or two. This was a man she had heard much of but never seen. He had been her husband's college friend; was now a journalist, and in no sense a society man or "a man about town," which were, perhaps, some of the reasons she had never met him. But she had unconsciously formed an image of him in her mind. She pictured him tall, slim, cynical; with eye-glasses, and his hands in his pockets; and she did not like him. Gouvernail was slim enough, but he wasn't very tall nor very cynical; neither did he wear eyeglasses nor carry his hands in his pockets. And she rather liked him when he first presented himself. But why she liked him she could not explain satisfactorily to herself when she partly attempted to do so. She could discover in him none of those brilliant and promising traits which Gaston, her husband, had often assured her that he possessed. On the contrary, he sat rather mute and receptive before her chatty eagerness to make him feel at home and in face of Gaston's frank and wordy hospitality. His manner was as courteous toward her as the most exacting woman could require; but he made no direct appeal to her approval or even esteem. Once settled at the plantation he seemed to like to sit upon the wide portico in the shade of one of the big Corinthian pillars, smoking his cigar lazily and listening attentively to Gaston's experience as a sugar planter.
About the Author: Kate Chopin (born Kate O'Flaherty in St. Louis (Missouri) February 8, 1851, died in St. Louis August 22, 1904) is a French-American writer. In Creole French origin, it nevertheless written in English. She is the author of numerous short stories and two known for their mood tinged Creole culture novels, but his work is best known for being the harbinger of feminist writers of the twentieth century. Children: Kate Chopin's father, Thomas O'Flaherty, was a native of the area of Galway in Ireland influential businessman. His mother, born Eliza Faris, was a member of an old French family of St. Louis. His maternal grandmother, Athena'ise Charleville, was descended from a French-Canadian family. Some of his ancestors were among the first European immigrants have settled in Dauphin Island (Alabama). Kate's father died in 1855, founder of the Pacific Railroad, he participated in the inaugural trip of the line when a bridge built over the Gasconade River, a tributary of the Missouri River, collapsed. That same year, Kate, then 4 years old, was sent to the Catholic Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis. After the death of his father, the links between Kate his mother and his great-grandmother tightened. She developed a keen interest in fairy tales, poetry and religion, but also for classic and contemporary novels. Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens then were among his favorite authors. 1863 was a tragic year for the O'Flaherty family; the great-great-grandmother of Kate and her half-brother, George, died. George O'Flaherty had joined a mounted infantry regiment of the Confederate Army and died of typhoid fever in a prison camp in Little Rock, Arkansas. That same year, Kate left her school, which allowed him to delve into his readings. In 1865, she rejoined the Catholic Academy of the Sacred Heart which she graduated in 1868 but not really be distinguished in any particular subject, but having developed a talent narrator.