Part 3: Ceremony, Chapters 12, 13 and 14 Summary

Iris and Alan begin to spend time together and Alan introduces Iris to the pleasures of a privileged life such as afternoons spent sailing in the family's twelve-foot sailboat. Alan becomes increasingly enamored of Iris and continues to date Iris after Labor Day when the family returns to Syracuse after having spent the summer at their lake house.

Alan does not persist in probing into Iris's past, a fact which pleases Iris who is so intent on retaining the fazade already established with the Savages. Still reluctant to share the real truth about her past, Iris reveals to Alan only sketchy details of the fabricated past she had once revealed to Mrs. Savage. Alan does share his past with Iris though and especially delights in telling Iris about his career as an art historian and his passion...