Summary

Still relating his past, Ramsay says Boy Staunton becomes very rich during the Depression, as he sold people the things that console them, such as bread, doughnuts, or water sweetened with beet sugar. He becomes an object of envy to the people Ramsay works with at the school, but Ramsay retains a friendship with him and Leola. Leola, however, is ‘lagging in the upward climb’ into affluence and culture (p. 151). While Boy acquires skills and culture easily, Leola comes along slowly, and this begins to take a toll on their marriage.

Ramsay describes two times when he intervenes. In the first case, Boy has taken some nude photos of Leola, and he asks Ramsay to develop the photos—and then to comment on them in Leola’s presence. In the second case, he tells Boy and Leola the story of Gyges and King Candaules, in which...