Edna's father, the Colonel, comes to visit. They spend time at the racetrack, where they socialize with Mrs. Merriman, Mrs. Highcamp, and Alcée Arobin. Dr. Mandelet comes to dinner one night and is alarmed by Edna's high-spirited recollection of their day at the races — he fears she is already enamored of Arobin, a notorious womanizer. During dinner, the doctor tells a story about a married woman who fell in love with another man but returned her devotion to her husband in the end. Edna, nonplussed, counters with a vivid tale of her own about a couple in love who rowed away one night in a small boat and disappeared in the Baratarian Islands, never to be seen again.
