Summary

Chapter 2 opens with an image of Lady Slim Keith answering an early phone call. On the other line is Babe who asks if Slim has read Truman’s piece in Esquire. Babe is troubled by whatever the contents are and demands that Slim read the piece and call her back.

When she begins reading, Slim realizes that Truman used pseudonyms for the people in the “member of our set” (21). To her surprise and disgust, Truman has made Slim’s character, Lady Ina Coolbirth, the deliver of the group’s secrets.

When Slim calls Babe back, Babe pushes to hear Slim’s thoughts on the piece and is intrigued by a story the narrator labels as The Sheets. Slim contemplates the story Truman has written about Ann Woodward, another Manhattan socialite known by the group. The narrative moves to Ann who apparently received a...