Angle of Repose

After an “utter failure” (198) of a Christmas, Susan writes to Augusta and complains about living in the West. A month later, she writes again about how money is tight and Oliver's attempts to find a backer have faltered. She writes to Thomas and updates him on her commissions. In March, she writes to Augusta again and admits that she and Oliver have had to “postpone cement” (199) due to the tough economic climate. Susan is set to travel back East until their financial situation improves.

Oliver abandons his cement idea without ever patenting it: “[M]any would grow right out of it” (201) but not Oliver. Lyman is not worried about this, as it would have changed his grandparents from “the people I knew” (201). Oliver takes a job in Deadwood, a lawless part of the country, while Susan returns East with Conrad Prager and his family. She finally arrives in Poughkeepsie at four o’clock in the morning and finds herself alone at the station. She sits in the waiting room until morning and then takes the ferry toward her family home. Exhausted, she arrives “at her father’s door” (205) and is welcomed in by her mother. Sitting in the kitchen, she is told the bad news: Thomas has been taken ill and, on doctor’s orders, he and Augusta have gone abroad “for at least a year” (206).

Lyman continues to work through the summer. Occasionally, he has “tantrums and passions” (208), raging against being confined to the chair. Shelly’s husband is still hanging around; she has talked to him on two occasions and “he likes it here” (210), she tells Lyman, but assures him that he will get bored and leave soon. One day, a delivery man brings 24 canaries for Shelly; she sends them back, claiming that it is “a bum joke” (211). Lyman laughs. He wonders what Susan would have done with “such a husband” (212).

Rodman visits Lyman, talking to Ada about his dad after being let in the house. Rodman and Lyman talk about Rodman’s work at the school and Lyman’s book, which has reached Deadwood. Rodman reveals that his mother has been asking after his father. She is having a “bad time” (220), Rodman reveals, but Lyman remains indifferent; if Rodman brought her to the house, he asks, would Lyman see her? Lyman says that he has “nothing to say to her” (221).

Susan gets off a train in Denver and searches for Oliver. They have been apart for “more than a year” (222). Baby Ollie’s recent sickness has caused Susan to fret. They are moving to a new house, though one more remote and less sociable than before. They take the train, heading for a cabin in Leadville, where Oliver is making money “hand over fist” (228). They drive a wagon through the twisting, tight mountain paths, and Oliver tells Susan about the difficulties of life out in the wild. They reach a hotel in Fairplay, a lively town; the clerk says their reserved room has been taken. Oliver is furious. They take a bed in a rundown boardinghouse instead. Susan cannot sleep.

The next day, they wake up early and set off for the final leg of the journey to their new home. At one point, Susan gets off the wagon and walks. When she catches up to the wagon, one of the horses has a problem. Oliver thinks it will be “dead by suppertime” (240), but they have no choice but to press on. When they are close to home, a seemingly runaway stagecoach comes thundering around the bend. Oliver desperately tries to guide their small wagon out of the way. He whips the sick horse to get moving again, disgusting Susan. The horse dies when they reach English George’s, and they hire another, which dies itself a few days later.

Oliver and Susan arrive in Leadville, “still aggrieved with each other” (244), and see a commotion in the street. They continue up the short path to their cabin. On entering, Susan tries hard to “conceal her disappointment” (246) at the cabin’s small size and paltry décor. She sees someone running toward the cabin: Frank, Oliver’s young assistant. After introducing himself, he reveals that the commotion in town occurred when they “just hanged a couple of men” (248); Frank believes the vigilante justice is justified, but Oliver thinks otherwise. Susan and Oliver prepare for supper and “begin their Leadville life in a state of euphoria” (251).

Lyman wonders what Susan would have looked like, waking in the cabin at six o'clock in the morning. Oliver cooks breakfast on a cold morning. After he leaves, she lies in bed. After an hour she gets up, cleans, and then begins to write, draw, or read. In one letter to Augusta, she explains how much she likes Frank, “a splendid boy” (255), and speaks of the “power over men” (255) she has experienced as the only female for miles. She also discusses Ian Price, an Englishman nicknamed Pricey who is “helpless and lonesome” (256); he works as Oliver’s clerk and becomes entirely absorbed in books. Leadville grows quickly with the possibility of riches. Susan meets Helen Hunt Jackson, “a literary lady married to a mining engineer” (260). Samuel Emmons, one of Oliver’s heroes, visits Leadville, as do Conrad Prager and other familiar faces. Many of these celebrities spent their evenings in Susan’s cabin.

During one such gathering, the guests discuss various conflicts of interest between scientists and businessmen. Questions are asked about the integrity of the government scientists who are friends with private miners. Oliver and Helen Jackson press the issue, however, cutting through the “playfulness” (267) of the answers, causing a moment of awkwardness. The party is cut short and the guests leave, all thanking Susan in glowing tones. Susan and Oliver lie down together, talking in the dark. She tells him to speak up more at parties; he says that he listens, hoping to learn something. Oliver reveals that he has been asked to join the government survey, and Susan tells him that he “deserves everything. More than everything” (275). 

Shelly’s time in Lyman’s house has “led her to adopt a more familiar tone” (276) than Lyman would like. They discuss the role of sex in the book, much to Lyman’s chagrin. If he extrapolates too much, he says, “the resulting sex scenes would be mine, not hers” (278). Shelly begins to talk about group sex, wondering whether it would offend Lyman. They discuss the previous scene, in which Oliver tells Susan about the survey, and that Susan learned that the role would take Oliver all around the country, away from her and their child. Oliver takes the managership of an Adelaide mine instead, which will allow them to remain in their current location.

Susan begins to upgrade the cabin. She thinks about the syndicate who own the Adelaide mine that includes a number of famous people. She leaves Leadville for the winter, returning to Milton. She reintroduces herself to her child and then begins writing a novel. Occasional letters from Oliver are not very detailed or revealing. Susan sells her novel and hears news that she can travel West again. She readies Ollie to meet his father again, whom he has almost entirely forgotten. Susan thinks about the family that she is leaving behind: “[W]hat she accepted for herself and her son was impossible for her parents and unlikely for her sister” (292).

Susan and Ollie travel to meet Oliver. She entertains her son on the long journey. At the station, she mistakes Frank Sargent for Oliver, who then arrives and embraces his wife and son. They ride fast to Leadville, trying to beat the snow storm. Oliver reveals that times have been hard in the mines. He recalls how Frank helped fend off a rival mine’s attempt to enter Oliver’s mine. Susan believes that “it sounds like war” (299): “That’s Leadville. That’s what we chose” (299), Oliver tells her. They arrive at the cabin, expecting to find Pricey there but it is deserted. Oliver settles everything inside and then, taking his gun, goes to search for Pricey. Hours pass by and Susan unpacks to stop herself from worrying. A sudden knock on the door surprises her. She opens it and Oliver and Frank enter, carrying a man’s body. Susan looks at the face and screams.

Lyman admits that his records from this time “all but stop” (304), but can provide an overview. Susan became Pricey’s nurse; the weather continued to be terrible; there was trouble at the mine; Susan worried about Oliver and everyone else. Pricey is “maimed, body and mind” (304), and Susan is worried that they will be forced to take care of him forever. One day, she takes Ollie and Pricey out to pick wildflowers. Frank buys a cheap mandolin and plays to them once summer arrives. The adults all sing together and then clap and praise one another. Susan notices a lingering look in Frank’s eyes when she praises him. They sing all evening. Then, Susan notices in Ollie the onset of “the old Milton curse” (311), a particularly strong fever.

Lyman remembers how his grandparents reacted to sickness: His grandfather would say the child should be left alone, while his grandmother would fret. Ollie’s sickness is “violent” (312). Susan becomes obsessed with caring for her son. She barely notices when Pricey is taken away or when a German woman arrives to help with chores. Oliver has to convince her to taking a sleeping medicine. Susan sleeps 16 hours while Oliver cares for Ollie. When she wakes up, she finally updates herself on everything. The mine is still beset with problems; Oliver sent Pricey back to England. Upset, Susan admits that she hates “that heartless mine” (317) and suggests that they need to leave, either permanently or on vacation. Oliver announces that they have the option of going to Mexico for his work, but Ollie will not be able to accompany them. Susan agrees.