Summary

Chapter 2: Lyman starts going through his grandmother’s papers. First are some of her unpublished reminiscences written when Susan Ward was in her eighties. She looks back at her friendship with Augusta Drake. Augusta belonged to the old aristocracy of New York. She spent her girlhood abroad and spoke three languages. Susan met her at the art school she attended in New York. Lyman sees a lesbian relationship between the two young girls.

Susan lives with a friend of her family’s in New York. They have receptions one of which is where she meets Oliver Ward. He is going west to gain experience as an engineer and asks if he may write her. She consents, but mentions nothing of him to Augusta.

Chapter 3: Lyman hires a woman to help him organize his grandmother’s papers, but finds her tiresome. He takes on his caretaker...