Chapters III and IV Summary

Shenah hopes that one of the young renters will be taken with Bessie who is nine years older than Shenah was when she married. However, the young men are all taken with Mashah. Even Fania has a boyfriend and she is soon attending college classes with the young man. One day, Bessie brings home a new white oilcloth for the table, a piece of lace fabric to cover the rusty pipes under the sinks and gold paper to cover the "fly dirt" on the chandelier. Bessie asks Mashah to stay home one night to help clean the apartment and she agrees. Sara says that when her mother arrives home she wants to cover the tablecloth with newspapers and to remove the lace curtain until there is company. The "new Bessie" says that she wants the apartment to...