Part 2: Chapter 3 Summary

Hard-working Realtor Helen Givings returns home after a long Saturday of showing and selling homes. A former stenographer at a machinery plant before she and her husband Howard moved to the suburbs in 1936, Helen is neat, orderly, and dedicated to her profession. Her home is clean and crisp with Currier and Ives prints on the walls and fresh wax on the cedar floors. As she fixes afternoon tea for her almost-deaf husband, Mrs. Givings reflects on her life before and after moving to her Connecticut home and feels satisfied with herself and her decisions. Sixty-seven-year-old Howard Givings looks and acts older than his years; his hands shake as he takes his cup of tea. She tells him there is no cake because she's going to the Wheelers' house for a drink and a visit after an early supper.

As they sip...