Summary

The next chapter is titled “Safua,” and returns the narrative’s focus to Gbessa and Gerald. There are descriptions of how Miss Ernestine and her society friends, and even Mrs. Johnson, repeatedly insist that Gbessa behave according to their standards, ask intrusive questions, and chastise her for how she speaks and how she does her hair. Meanwhile, Gbessa feels guilty about the fact that she wants to please them more than she wants to be herself, and that she is moving away from her friendship with Maisy in order to be the kind of woman she is expected to be. She continually surprises her servants by wanting to do her own cooking and her own gardening, until Gerald insists that she be the sort of woman that Miss Ernestine and the others want her to be, and let the servants do their jobs. He...