Excerpt from All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I watched Etna bring her own cup to her lips and noted that there was no trembling in those long fingers.

"Van Tassel teaches English Literature and Rhetoric at the college," Bliss said.

"An acceptable passion," I added, smiling in her direction. She did not smile back, but neither did she look away, and I fancy she studied me for a moment then. "And are you in Thrupp for an extended visit?" I asked, unable to stifle my curiosity any longer.

"Yes, I am," she said. "You do not like your tea?"

"I like it very much," I answered, lifting the saucer and once again attempting to put the cup to my lips.

"My niece is here," Bliss explained, "until such time as she can settle herself, though we are enjoying her company so much that I hope that moment shan’t be for a long while yet."

"My mother passed away recently," Etna said. "And unfortunately I was forced to put her house up for sale. I am staying with my aunt and uncle until such time as a settlement of the estate can be made."

"I am sorry about your mother," I said, though how could I have been at all sorry if such an event — even death — had brought Etna Bliss to Thrupp? "I hope it was not sudden."

"No, she had been ill for some time."

"And your father?" I asked.

"My father passed away some years ago," she said.

"Forgive me," I said.

"Not at all," she said. "I also have two sisters, who are married."

"I see. And where was your house?"

"In Exeter."

"Etna’s arrival is most fortuitous," Bliss said, "since my daughter and her husband are in San Francisco, visiting his family for Christmas."

"I see," I said again, remembering vaguely a thin, smartly dressed young woman who had sometimes accompanied Bliss to college social occasions.

"Evelyn and I should be quite lonely without Etna and my granddaughter in residence. I hope she shall stay on long after my daughter returns."

I am certain it was then that I first saw a faint look of alarm pass across the features of the woman who sat opposite to me, and I believe I understood at once that the prospect of confinement within those overfurnished rooms was not one that Etna Bliss relished. Perhaps she, too, felt the oxygen being sucked from her body by the side tables and the spiky vines. At that moment, a door within me opened.

I sat forward, already a petitioner.

"You have a most excellent escort in your uncle, I am sure," I said, "but I should be delighted to show you some of the modest treasures Thrupp has to offer, namely the Metcalf Library and the Elliot Collection. Have you been to either?"

"No, I have not," she said, and I sensed once again that the prospect of leaving that house might not be an entirely unpleasant one to her.

"Etna has been helpful with my granddaughter, Aurelia," Bliss said by way of explanation. "But I am afraid we have kept her from enjoying herself with persons her own age."

I wondered how old Etna Bliss was exactly. Surely twenty-four at the least, but not more than twenty-eight? Just off the cusp of marriageable. I thought I detected in Etna a slightly new scrutiny of me as well, one that had been summoned forth by my bold petition. I wished then I had spent the necessary minutes that morning at my toilet so as to present a more pleasing and prosperous aspect, both to her and to Bliss. He would not think a professor’s salary an adequate sum on which to raise a family (and indeed it was not), and I should have to inform him, when the moment was appropriate, that in fact I was in possession of a modest fortune and could afford to keep a wife. I let my thoughts run ahead in this fantastical manner until Etna abruptly stood.

"I fear I have left my aunt too long," she said. She put out her hand. "Good-bye, Professor Van Tassel."

From All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve. Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher, Little, Brown & Company.