Chapter 2 Summary

Henderson reveals that Lily's father committed suicide with a pistol. Lily's father is also a drunk, who accidentally knocks out Lily's front teeth while they are playing golf when Lily is in high school. When Henderson meets Lily, her father has been dead for ten or twelve years. Lily idolizes her father. Shortly after he dies, Lily marries a man from Baltimore. During the war, they get a divorce and she returns to Danbury to live with her mother. Frances and Henderson go to a party in Danbury, but Frances leaves abruptly in the car, forgetting about Henderson. Lily offers him a ride home. Her car skids on the ice and slides gently into a snowdrift. They talk in the car, and Lily tells him he should divorce his wife.

The following summer, Lily and Henderson meet again in Danbury, and Lily asks...