Fever 1793: Chapter 28 Summary & Analysis

Three days later, every chair in the coffeehouse is filled, and “the air [is] thick again with arguments, tobacco smoke, and the smell of fresh coffee and cakes.” Mattie circulates with free samples of apple cake. She’s full of ideas, too—they could deliver small cakes to the State House with handbills advertising the coffeehouse, for example. Nathaniel offers to paint a sign for the front of the store. As he leaves for his work at Peale’s, Eliza concedes that Nathaniel is “useful, for a painter.”

After her next round of refilling coffee cups, Mattie surveys the room and admires Nathaniel’s bright paintings. Next spring, she might buy the adjacent lot so that she can expand. Everything is going well, and yet “I felt hollow.” She has lost so much. Before she can dwell on memories, however, Nathaniel bursts into the coffeehouse again and reports that President Washington has returned and is coming down the street. Everyone pushes their way out the door to see for themselves.

Nathaniel and Mattie watch the President riding down the street, an assurance that the fever is truly over. Mattie spontaneously kisses Nathaniel’s cheek. As people drift back toward the coffeehouse, Nathaniel notices a “scraggly parade of wagons and carriages” trailing the president’s entourage. One carriage pulls up to the coffeehouse. The driver and a woman are helping a frail, gray-haired woman out of the carriage. When the woman raises her face, Mattie sees that Mother has come home.