Irene’s husband feels a little perturbed at Irene when he discovers she has invited Clare to come to the Negro Welfare League’s benefit dance. After all Irene told him about Clare and after his counsel to her to stay away from Clare, he is disappointed that Irene has conceded to Clare. There is nothing, however, that he can do about it.

Later, as Irene notes on the night of the dance, Brian does not seem to mind Clare’s appearance in the least. He acts quite cordial with Clare as he drives her and Irene to the dance. Furthermore, Brian dances several times with Clare. Irene feels glad that Brian is so helpful in making Clare feel comfortable in the crowd of strangers. At the end of the dance, Brian finds Irene and tells her he will drop her off at home first and then take Clare home. But Irene tells him that she has already made other plans. She has asked a friend who lives not far from Clare’s hotel to drive Clare back.

Earlier, during the dance, when Irene took a break from her hostess duties and dancing, she sat down with Hugh Wentworth, a popular white author and a patron of the charity dance. They were sitting on an indoor balcony, looking down at the dance floor. Their discussion centered on race. The conversation began when Hugh asked Irene who the beautiful blonde was, and he pointed out Clare. At the moment, Clare was dancing with a very distinguished-looking black man. Hugh found the couple a very interesting study in contrast. Then he wanted to know why white women seemed to enjoy dancing with black men more so than with white men. At first, Irene surmised that it might be because, in general, black men are better dancers. Hugh thought it must be something deeper than that.

Irene suggested that maybe it was the excitement of being close to and sharing an experience with someone different from oneself. There is a curiosity that pulls people together—people who may be the opposite of what they are accustomed to. Irene added that the attraction was not necessarily because someone might think that the man or the woman was beautiful, as Hugh had suggested. Rather it might be quite the contrary. They might even be drawn to someone they believed was ugly or repugnant. People are stimulated, Irene suggested, by the exotic.

Then Hugh opened the topic of people “passing.” He asked if Clare belonged in that group of those who were Negro but passed for white. He told Irene that he had trouble distinguishing people who passed. Irene did not give Hugh a direct answer but she said even she could not always tell. And the attempt at passing goes both ways, she added. She once knew a white woman who tried to pass for Negro, but Irene could tell she was a fraud. She added that it was easier for black people to pass for white than it was for white people to pass for black. She was not referring to the color of one’s skin; a white person could not pretend to be black in that way. Rather, Irene was talking about the mannerisms and possibly the language one learns from having been raised in a particular culture. It is very difficult to make that up. One has to learn that naturally. Because black people are more aware of white culture than white people are of black culture, it is much easier to tell if a white person was trying to pass.