Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary

Lucy as a Work of Art-- Mrs. Honeychurch hosts a garden party to give her friends and neighbors a chance to meet Cecil. Cecil is extremely uncomfortable, and complains in the carriage on the way home about the conventional attitudes and expectations that make such parties necessary. Lucy and Mrs. Honeychurch both attempt to argue with him, but soon realize that his own self-righteously and self-consciously contradictory attitudes won't be changed. At one point conversation focuses on cultural fences, and whether there's any difference between the fences people put up because society and tradition tell them to, and fences people put up to defend themselves and define their own lives. This leads to a conversation about Mr. Beebe, whom Lucy says has no fences at all, as well as about Mr. Eager, whom Lucy says is all about fences and...