The Dinner Party Dilemma — Alice Adams

On a beautiful twilight Alice tells her mother she is pretty happy, then confesses she feels like a tricky mess beside Russell's honesty. Mrs. Adams decides they must stop looking poverty-stricken and invite him to dinner the next day, hiring Malena Burns, buying roses and caviar, and planning an elaborate menu they can barely afford. Alice agrees reluctantly, already dreading what Russell will think of their worn chairs, soot-streaked columns, and the lies she told about wealth and travel abroad. Inside the house Adams erupts at Walter, who quietly demands three hundred fifty dollars without explanation and refuses to join the glue works. Walter reveals Lamb spoke to him by name yesterday, deepening Adams's uneasy obsession, then walks into the darkness after saying his parents never did much for him. Mrs. Adams still pushes the dinner, extracting fifteen dollars from Adams and launching a frantic cleaning campaign. The next morning Alice discovers Walter's closet bare and guesses he left early in his other suit, not yet seeing the darker truth. She scrubs floors and columns while her mother orchestrates sweetbreads, fillet, and angel-food cake, smiling through fear that the performance will expose every lie Alice has hidden.