In “A Wagner Matinee,” Clark’s Aunt Georgiana comes to Boston on family business. Georgiana seems dazed by being in Boston, having lived in a small prairie town in Nebraska for the past 30 years. As a treat, Clark plans to take his aunt to a concert of Wagner music, knowing her love of music. But Clark wonders if it was a good idea.

Which excerpt from the story leaves matters uncertain for readers about Aunt Georgiana?


"'Don’t love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you. Oh! dear boy, pray that whatever your sacrifice be it is not that.'"

"She questioned me absently about various changes in the city, but she was chiefly concerned that she had forgotten to leave instructions about feeding half-skimmed milk to a certain weakling calf…"

"For thirty years my aunt had not been farther than fifty miles from the homestead."

"She preserved this utter immobility throughout the numbers from The Flying Dutchman, though her fingers worked mechanically upon her black dress, as though of themselves they were recalling the piano score they had once played."