Chapters 2 and 3 Summary

In chapter two, Avis describes her father's pleasure at the evening's events, explaining that since the death of his wife he had become a "dinner party" sociologist, inviting men of ideas and conviction to dinner and setting them arguing. Avis writes of beginning to read Everhard's books, one of which, a footnote suggests, was secretly published during "the three centuries of the Iron Heel", and describes her surprise at Everhard turning up for conversation with herself, her father and Bishop Morehouse, the one guest at the dinner party who wished to see more of him. Over the course of conversation, Everhard elaborates on his theories about the relationship between the working and capitalist classes, an elaboration based on the fundamental premise that all men are selfish. He goes on to suggest that the church is complicit and un-protesting in the capitalist...