Gabriel is thinking that if he tells his speech truthfully, he will make the people around him mad. As he distances himself from the activity of the party, he begins to long to be outside with the snow. "How cool it must be outside! How pleasant it would be to walk out alone"(201). He feels he is least vulnerable in the snow, where no one can hear anything and no one can get hurt. Even though Gabriel must hide from the rest of the world, he feels that he can always trust his faithful wife, Gretta.
Gabriel thought that Gretta was the only woman that was incapable of hurting him. He cherished the "colour on her cheeks and that her eyes were shining," that made "A sudden joy went leaping out of his heart"(223) When Gabriel walked with his wonderful wife the snow was beginning to be "slushy underfoot; and only streaks and patches of snow lay on the roofs"(224). He gave all his attention to her while they walked, and longed to know what she was thinking. "his heart was brimming over with happiness he was wishing for it she had come to him of her own accord Perhaps she had felt the impetuous desire that was in him"(229) He longed to know the truth inside her, but he was badly mistaken of what she was thinking.
"The smile passed away from Gabriel's face,"(230) when Gretta told him about Michael Furey, the man she used to be in love with. The man who she would still be in love with, if he had not died at such a young age. Of all these years of marriage Gabriel finally realized that "while he had been full of memories of their secret life together, full of tenderness joy and desire, she had been comparing him her mind with another. A shameful consciousness of his own person assailed him"(231) Gretta finally told the truth, and she hurt him badly. Gabriel looked at how he felt before she told the truth and how he felt after she told the truth, and then he realized that he is better off not knowing the truth.
