Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary

Mrs. Wainright-Lowe is entertaining Mrs. Margaret Heath. Mrs. Heath and her husband are writers and neighbors to Mrs. Wainright-Lowe. They are having tea and a light repast. Mrs. Wainright-Lowe is the mother of eleven children. One of her daughters, Eve, is home for the day and enjoying the tea with her mother and Mrs. Heath. Mrs. Heath does not consider the invitation or the tea an enjoyment. The visitor sees this as a duty to be endured. Mrs. Heath and her husband have been successfully avoiding duties such as this since their arrival in town. With the gregarious Wainright-Lowes and interposing business owners about town, there had been many invitations. The Heaths prefer more academic pursuits, which they desire to accomplish either alone, or with each other, but not with the rest of the town.

Sister Evelyn, an Anglican nun, joins...