The Nature of Fragile Things

The narrative switches to Sophie’s first-person perspective. She eagerly arrives in San Francisco after six days on a westbound train. Sophie has escaped a squalid tenement in Lower Manhattan, which was filled with other young Irishwomen “just like me who reminded me too frequently of what I left back home” (8). In San Francisco, she is planning to marry Martin Hocking, a man she has never met who has nevertheless paid for her passage across the country. In his photograph, Martin is handsome with “a fixed, charismatic gaze” that bewitches Sophie (10). She knows little about Martin, except that he is a widower with a five-year-old girl named Katharine, or Kat, whose mother died of tuberculosis. Sophie is to fulfill the deceased woman’s post of wife and mother.

Sophie is impressed by Martin’s gorgeous, neat appearance and the eyes that “look like they could peer right into my very soul” (14). She wonders what such a man is doing looking for a mail order bride.

Martin takes Sophie to the courthouse where they are to be married. On the carriage ride home, Martin says that he is an orphan raised by an uncle and aunt to whom he is not close. Sophie explains that her own mother is unlikely to approve of such a rushed marriage, and that her father died when she was 16 after a roofing accident. She tells Martin that her father liked to use long words and read books. Although he wanted to go to university, he could not afford it, so he became a roofer. When they get out of the carriage, Martin informs Sophie that he and Kat have been staying in a boarding house for four months and that they will have to walk up the hill to get there. He then says that they will be moving to a new place, and that Sophie and Kat are to get settled while he gets on with his job.

At the boarding house, Sophie meets elusive five-year-old Kat and Mrs. Lewis, the housekeeper. The new family walks away to their new home.

Kat remains silent in the carriage, as Sophie tries to tell her how she looked after lots of children in Ireland. Still, Kat agrees to sit in her lap as Sophie mounts her first cable car. They reach their three-story house on Polk Street near the city’s Russian Hill neighborhood.

At eight pm, when Kat goes to bed, Sophie asks to tuck her in. She notices that all of Kat’s clothes seem too small, as though “she has grown since her mother’s illness and death, and Martin perhaps has not noticed” (32). Sophie spots a photograph of a beautiful woman who looks like she could be Kat’s mother, and the child nods sadly. She tries to talk to Kat about missing a parent, given her own father’s death.

Afterward, Sophie goes back to join Martin, who says that her naturalness with Kat would make him think she was a mother before. Sophie replies that she helped her mother look after children in the neighborhood. They retire to separate bedrooms; Sophie requested that they sleep separately until affection grows between them.

Sophie admits that while she finds Martin attractive, she “won’t be giving myself over to a man—body and soul—until I truly know him. I won’t be making the same mistake twice” (36). In the morning, Martin reveals that he travels for work in his new automobile. Sophie asks him whether Kat stopped speaking after her mother died. Martin replies that Candace, his late wife, was sick before she died, and that the sicker she got, the quieter Kat became. Martin reveals that he was on bad terms with his in-laws because they wanted Candace to marry someone richer.

Kat is already awake and dressed when Sophie goes to rouse her. They get new clothes, and afterward Martin goes off on some errand. He does not return until after Sophie has made supper and Kat has been tucked into bed, annoying Sophie. She asks him about his life with Candace, and Martin replies that he worked at a riding club in Los Angeles before working in insurance. He reveals, to Sophie’s surprise, that he was a ranch hand in Colorado when he was younger, and that he came to California on the money left to him in a will. He met Candace at the riding club, where her parents sent her to learn horseback riding. It was there too that he met a man who worked at an insurance firm and decided to emulate him. When they say goodnight and Martin walks past her, Sophie catches “the merest whiff of women’s cologne on him” (49).

The next morning, Martin heads out and leaves Sophie money in case she needs anything while he is gone. He says that he will be home in about five days.

Sophie writes a letter to her mother, dated March 30, 1905, and informs her of her marriage to Martin. She tells her mother that it does not matter how she and Martin met; it only matters that “our paths crossed at the right time for both of us” (53). She concludes the letter by expressing her feeling that she has finally been given a new chance to start over after a bad past decision.

Sophie sends the letter after many delays. She realizes that Martin has a desk that he keeps all locked up.

The three of them have been at the house two months when a neighbor named Libby introduces herself. Sophie gets stuck when Libby asks her questions about her husband, especially as Martin wants people to see him as a wholesome family man. Libby wonders aloud whether Martin might be involved in illegal activity and is shocked that Sophie does not have a maid.

Libby asks personal questions about where Sophie and Martin met. Sophie tells the truth because Kat is listening, and she wants her adopted daughter to trust her. Libby is astounded that Sophie married a man without meeting him first. Sophie tells her about her poverty in New York, and how Belfast doctors told her she would never have her own children. Libby wonders why Martin did not just get a nanny, if he just wanted childcare. Sophie says that Martin needed to retain the image of the respectable married man for his clients.

At the end of the visit, Kat lays her head on Sophie’s hip, acknowledging how tiring the experience has been for them both.

When Martin gets back from his trip, he is irritated by Sophie’s curious demands about his whereabouts. He all but ignores Kat, retreating into his library, and Sophie tells her that her father is too sad to talk to her. She sings Kat a lullaby in Gaelic, and Kat asks to hear more. Sophie is pleased that Kat has begun to speak to her, even if it is just in monosyllables.

Mrs. Lewis from the boarding house drops by. She asks if all is well between Sophie and Martin. Mrs. Lewis reveals that she was worried about Kat because her father would leave her all alone in their room for days, and she lived as a recluse. Kat once whispered to Mrs. Lewis that it was her fault her mother got sick and died, without explaining why.

After a family day trip to Golden Gate Park, Sophie decides that it is time for her and her husband to sleep together. She acknowledges that it has been a long time since she wanted a man to touch her. However, although she leaves her bedroom door open wide, Martin does not come to her. This continues, even as he provides for her and Kat.

One night, while Sophie is making tea, Martin wants to discuss something with her. He tells her that he wants to help his cousin Belinda by storing bottles of her tonic for balding men. Martin announces he is making a vault for the hair tonic in the boiler room. He informs Sophie that she and Kat must stay out of the vault because the hair tonic will be ruined if jostled.

Sophie knocks on Martin’s bedroom door that night and slips into bed beside him. She tells him that she no longer wants him to be a stranger. She is certain that he has been visiting brothels due to the smell of cologne on him. Martin calmly agrees to make love to her. She tries not to think about the last time a man undressed her and finds that while “there is none of the violence of the last time I was with a man […] there is no passion, either,” and Martin does not kiss her (83). In the morning, it is as though nothing has changed between them.

Although their physical relationship continues and Sophie no longer smells the brothels on Martin, she senses he has no affection for her, especially as he never kisses her.

In September, Martin brings in his cousin’s hair tonic and stores it in the vault. Once, Sophie disobeys him and enters the vault to find there is no difference between the air temperature inside and outside of the brick structure, leading her to believe the vault is not what it seems. Sophie asks Martin if Kat might start school along with other children her age. However, at an interview with a local school, a headmistress deems Kat too withdrawn for a social environment and recommends homeschooling instead.

Sophie becomes Kat’s tutor and finds that the little girl “for all her oddities, was born to learn” as she absorbs everything like a sponge, even though she remains quiet (88).

As 1906 begins, Sophie finds that it is the first year since her father’s death that she is not unhappy because of the growing bond between her and Kat; however, Martin remains aloof. By the time March arrives, Sophie knows that she must be content without hoping that Martin will ever change. Sophie is happy to see that Kat is speaking whispered sentences to her.

On April 17, a petite, blond, pregnant woman turns up at the doorstep and asks for Martin. She mentions that Martin asked a favor of her husband James Bigelow, and that the latter has been away longer than expected. When the woman announces that her first name is Belinda, Sophie remembers that this is the name of Martin’s cousin.

Belinda reveals that her husband is a land surveyor. She is surprised that Martin works in insurance because James said that he was in real estate development. Belinda almost faints when she sees Sophie and Martin’s wedding picture, saying that the man in the photograph is James, her husband.

This chapter returns to the November 6 interview between Sophie and Logan. Logan asks Sophie when she would have expected Martin to return if the earthquake had not occurred. She says that Martin’s habits were unreliable and that she could not have exactly predicted his return. Logan then reveals that a man matching Martin’s description was seen leaving San Rafaela, 20 miles south of San Francisco on April 17, the day before the earthquake. His automobile was found six miles North the next day, having run out of gasoline. The marshal speculates that Martin would have tried to walk home and would have arrived in the early morning before the earthquake. He offers Sophie the chance to revise her statement and rethink whether she saw her husband the morning of the earthquake.

Federal authorities are gathering information on Martin’s suspicious activities. Logan keeps emphasizing Sophie’s need to clear her name and reminds her that her husband’s assumption of a false identity is a federal crime. Sophie replies that this is not the worst of his crimes.

The narrative returns to the day of Belinda’s arrival. Both Sophie and Belinda are shocked to discover that they have married the same man. Then, Sophie realizes that Kat has been watching them. Although she is stunned at the revelation that Martin has another wife, Sophie has grown so attached to Kat that she will do anything to ensure the two of them stay together. Belinda is shocked at Kat’s existence and the fact that Martin had another wife named Candace. Belinda says that Martin married her in July of 1905, which is after he married Sophie. It turns out that Belinda owns an inn in San Rafaela where she makes herb tonics, and Martin stayed there. The couple met in April 1905 and were married weeks later. Sophie tries to figure out Martin’s motivations in marrying her when he could have just as easily married Belinda and styled himself as “a blessed family man” (107).

In talking, the women learn that they both lost a father to a fall. While Sophie’s fell off a roof, Belinda’s fell down a mineshaft 14 months ago. In the wake of her bereavement, her lust for the man she knew as James Bigelow made her feel alive again. Belinda said that her best friend Elliot warned her that there was something wrong with James, embodied in “the way [he] looked at me, like he was looking right past me” (108). Belinda observes that Sophie does not seem as devastated by the revelations as she is. Sophie reveals that she does not love Martin and tells Belinda her story.

Belinda pities Sophie and asks her why she did not want to marry for love. Sophie replies that “there was once a man I thought I loved and who I thought loved me. But I was wrong” (110). She refuses to elaborate.

Belinda reveals that Martin turned up in his automobile and made a big impression on her after her father’s death. He immediately gave the name James Bigelow and said he was a land surveyor. Sophie observes that the Martin who attracted Belinda was attentive and kind, compared to the man that she met. Belinda reveals that her grandfather came to San Francisco in the last gold rush, and he and her father were digging for gold but never found any. Martin told Belinda that he was living in a boarding house in San Francisco and that he grew up on a Colorado cattle ranch. Sophie reveals that he told her that his parents were killed in an accident, and that it was a Colorado cattle rancher who gave him his first job. He was lying to them both.

Belinda says that she fell in love with James, and that when he proposed after only three months, she accepted. She says that she felt loved by him at the beginning, although she soon hoped that James would want a job that would allow him to be home every night, especially when she revealed that she was pregnant. Sophie sees that while Belinda had long seen the cracks in his story, “she came here to prove to herself that the cracks were an illusion” (115). Sophie asks her how she knew the name Martin Hocking. Belinda replies that four days ago, she found an envelope with the name and an address in his coat pocket. When Belinda asked James about Martin, James dismissed him as a client and said that he had his mail because he was taking care of business for him. James told Belinda that he would be on business for Mr. Hocking for three days. Belinda asked Elliot to mind the inn and showed up at Sophie’s house.

Sophie tries to think about how she and Belinda fit into Martin’s larger plan. She is certain that Martin chose Belinda because she could specifically provide something he lacked. Sophie invites Belinda to help her explore the library and the vault. Then, they see that Kat has been listening the entire time.