<blockquote>How long did they stand there? Both, as it were, caught in that circle of unearthly light… creatures of a another world…”<sup>1</sup> </blockquote>Bertha Young’s interactions with Pearl Fulton might be deemed ordinary — two acquaintances at a dinner party who share a moment of stillness — if it were not for the language that deeply roots them in eroticism: “what was it in the touch of that cool arm that could fan—fan—start blazing—blazing—the fire of bliss that Bertha did not know what to do with?”<sup>2</sup><br><br>The distinctive nature of the short story is paradoxically integral to Bertha and Pearl’s relationship. Questions about the nature and extent of Bertha’s feelings are raised, but never answered. As a consequence, the reader attempts to interpret and explain this ambiguity, to answer definitively the question “what does Mansfield really mean?”<br><br>The reader’s role is of the utmost importance; their interpretations help to preserve the “multiplicity and heterogeneity in characterisation and meaning”<sup>3</sup> that is inherent within the story. The narrative and the reader work alongside each other — the former posing questions, the latter offering answers that can be proven neither true nor false. The more the reader grapples to comprehend the text, the more potential meanings it acquires.<br><br>Of course, one will never know what Mansfield really meant, and perhaps that is the point; as the reader is left to contemplate Bertha’s desires, it is their own desire for truth that serves to maintain and heighten the ambiguity so characteristic of the short story.<br>