Significantly, Edna does not tell Arobin the true reason for her high spirits. Not only does she see a great need for secrecy about her feelings for Robert but knowledge of them may ruin the atmosphere of sexual tension that is firmly in place around herself and Arobin. She loves Robert but she enjoys Arobin's skilled attention and seductive manner, "the touch of his fingers through her hair." The chemistry between them is such that even her lack of emotional connection with him doesn't detract from the intensity of the kiss, "the first kiss of her life to which her nature had really responded. It was a flaming torch that kindled desire."
Now she knows the experience of a passionate sexual connection, which has been missing so far in her life. Even before the kiss occurs, she refers to herself as "a devilishly wicked specimen" of womankind, according to conventional morality, for loving Robert and endeavoring to move out of her husband's house. "But some way I can't convince myself that I am" — she is instinctively judging herself by another code of ethics, one in which being true to herself takes priority over commitments erroneously made in the ignorance of youth.
To adhere to this alternate set of morals requires personal strength, however, as Mademoiselle Reisz is fully aware of. She tests Edna metaphorically, physically feeling for her symbolic wings, and warns her explicitly about the fate of those who seek to "soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice" but who lack the fortitude to maintain flight and end up "bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth." Mademoiselle Reisz's warning serves as a grim foreshadowing of Edna's final scene, when she reaches the beach on Grand Isle and sees a bird with a broken wing sinking ominously through the air to the water.
