The House Behind the Cedars

In Patesville, George calls on Dr. Green, his mother’s cousin, who is out for the moment. George settles into an armchair to wait and reads a medical journal article about the unhealthiness of racial admixture. The article makes a particular point that even the slightest African ancestry renders a person inferior. George agrees with the article’s general sentiment.

George is dozing in the armchair when a voice startles him awake. A familiar voice in the other room is asking after Dr. Green. When he asks the doctor’s assistant who that was, the assistant says it was a colored woman. Dr. Green arrives, and George explains the legal business he is there for. Dr. Green takes George to Judge Straight and, in several asides, conveys his staunch racial bigotry. Judge Straight, by contrast, refers to slavery as an enemy which has now been slain.

A message from Dr. Green’s assistant gives the doctor another opportunity to express his racial animus, saying that all black people “are alike, except that now and then there’s a pretty woman along the border-line” (78). Dr. Green refers to one of these pretty colored women, clearly meaning Molly Walden, and Judge Straight responds carefully. George is bored by the discussion; he is marrying the most beautiful white woman in the world and cannot imagine having any interest in a woman of color. George presents the legal file to Judge Straight, and Dr. Green invites him to lunch.

As Judge Straight goes through the legal file, he finds Rena’s letter to George. With some deduction, he realizes that Rena Walden and Rowena Warwick are the same person, that George is engaged to her, and that she is in terrible danger of discovery. The judge is relatively liberal and well-aware that there are many mixed-race people throughout the South, usually forming a “ragged edge of the white world” (82).

John was given his means of passing by Judge Straight, and now the judge ponders what to do. He dashes off a note to Molly with a simple warning to keep her daughter at home for the next few days. The messenger, however, does not go straight to Molly’s house, and Rena has just left by the time he arrives. 

Frank, the young cooper in love with Rena, discovered one of the addressed envelopes John left for his mother to write and learned that Rena is living in Clarence. When there is an opportunity for work on the railroads that will take him to Clarence, Frank leaps at it.

Frank attends the tournament won by George and identifies Rena. She has no idea he is there, and he resolves not to endanger her by approaching, but, nevertheless, he takes joy from the sight of her happy and comfortable. When, during Rena’s return, Frank sees George in town, he is tempted to expose her but is too good-hearted. He rushes to Molly’s house to find Rena, but she is gone. He hurries first to the doctor’s office and then to drugstore.

At Dr. Green’s house on the hill overlooking town, George meets the doctor’s family. Mrs. Green asks her husband if George is wealthy and single. She is disappointed to hear that he is engaged. At dinner, George and the Greens discuss family connections and their fortunes in the war. Dr. Green recounts how many wealthy planters have been left their land but no slaves to work it. He rails against Reconstruction and the postwar order, insisting that “in time we shall gain control” (94). Mrs. Green asks George about his fiancé. George enthuses about Rena’s beauty, her brother’s excellence, and their stately home.

Dr. Green must leave lunch suddenly and takes George back into town with him. When the doctor receives news that Rena is looking for him at the pharmacy, George waits outside. He hears Rena speaking, however, and with dawning comprehension realizes that she is the woman who called upon Dr. Green earlier. Rena emerges from the pharmacy after a few moments, and they see each other. He is aghast and does not respond to her expression of pleading. She collapses.

Dr. Green sees Rena home, and George takes a long walk to calm himself. He then calls upon Judge Straight, who observes George closely to see how he is handling the shock. In turmoil, George locks himself into his hotel room for the night. He now finds the idea of marrying Rena repugnant but cannot remain angry with her once he has imagined her perspective. When he finally falls asleep, he has a nightmare in which Rena transforms into a hideous, black hag.

George calls on Dr. Green in the morning but is told the doctor is attending to Rena. George leaves a note for the doctor to inform him of his departure. George passes Molly’s house as he departs and pictures Rena, brokenhearted, weeping within it.

John receives two letters, one from George and the other from his mother. His mother’s letter informs him what has happened and that Rena is still not well. Molly attempts to reassure her son that the secret will not leak out further.

In his letter, George informs John that he is ending the engagement and feels somewhat insulted, but he recognizes the difficulty of the siblings’ position. He assures John that he will always think of him as a white man and that he will not tell anyone their secret.