Soldiers’ Pay · Chapter
XIII explained
Miss Cecily Saunders, dressed in pale blue linen, visits a neighbor's house for a morning call.
What happens
Miss Cecily Saunders, dressed in pale blue linen, visits a neighbor's house for a morning call. Though women do not like her and she knows it, she charms them with her conventional perfection and tact, gossiping without revealing anything herself. She chatters briefly with her hostess, then asks to use the telephone.
Characters to notice
- Cecily Saunders
Visits a neighbor's house, charmingly manipulative, uses the telephone.
Key passages
“Miss Cecily Saunders, in pale blue linen, entered a neighbor’s house, gushing, paying a morning call.”
Cecily Saunders, wearing a pale blue linen dress, went to a neighbor's home, acting effusively as she made a social visit.
Establishes Cecily's social performance and setting.
“Women did not like her, and she knew it. Yet she had a way with them, a way of charming them temporarily with her conventional perfection, insincere though she might be.”
Other women disliked Cecily, and she was aware of this, but she could still temporarily win them over with her flawless, though insincere, conventional charm.
Reveals Cecily's social awareness and manipulative charm.
“It was not until later you found that she had gossiped none herself. And this, indeed, requires tact.”
Only afterward did you realize she had shared no gossip of her own, a feat that demands considerable social skill.
Highlights Cecily's calculated discretion in conversation.