Exactly how steamy is this story?
PG-13
The lack of sexual tension between this couple is astounding, but it also explains why the padrone affects the American wife in such a significant way. That brief moment when he bows to her from his desk is filled with the kind of restrained, romantic arousal that you'd be more likely to expect from Jane Austen than Hemingway. The emphasis of the narrative on the way he wants to "serve" the wife, and the way he makes her feel "important" suggests a type of chivalric fantasy in the way she sees him; he allows her to feel the importance of her pleasure as a woman.