The day after Esther's food poisoning experience, she is too sick to go to work, and she is resting when she receives a phone call from a man. He turns out to be Constantin, a simultaneous interpreter from the UN whom Mrs. Willard knows. Esther is excited — partly because she likes to "collect" men with unusual names. Then she is disappointed when she realizes that he is calling her as a favor to Mrs. Willard. But she does accept his invitation to visit the UN and then have a "bite to eat." Constantin's choosing of words, via Mrs. Willard, immediately causes Esther to be annoyed with him. His call reminds her of Buddy Willard's hypocrisy that she so despises. It also reminds her of all the minor problems with social manners that she finds so disconcerting — such as how much to tip. Esther seems to have a difficult time negotiating simple things such as breakfast in bed. So she decides to read; she reads a story about a fig tree, a Jewish man, and a nun. This again makes her think of Buddy and how he once told her that a poem is "just a piece of dust." She could not think of a smart reply until now — a year later.
For the next chapter and a half, we learn about Esther's recent relationship with Buddy and how she adored him from a distance for several years. Their mothers were good friends, and their fathers were both university professors. When Buddy visits her at college, she is elated until she finds out that he is there to have a date with Joan. She becomes sarcastic with him, and Buddy leaves somewhat crestfallen. When Esther opens the envelope that Buddy leaves with her, her mood turns to joy when she discovers that he has asked her to the Yale Junior Prom. What a coup for the bookworm Esther.
Again, Esther's big date with Buddy is a mixed experience. She describes Buddy as being rather cheap, and her accommodations for the prom weekend are rather meager. For the high-point of the date, Buddy takes Esther up the hill behind the chemistry lab. She admits that the view is beautiful, but she is not exactly in awe of it. When Buddy kisses her, Esther is not as enthusiastic as he is, but she says nothing to him. He proposes to see her every third weekend, and Esther, at this suggestion, is "almost fainting and dying to get back to college and tell everybody." We then learn that she apparently continues to see Buddy steadily, even after he goes to medical school, despite her lack of interest in his kisses. The irony then is that she says it took her a long time to find out what a hypocrite he was, when, in fact, she found out about his hypocrisy very early. Yet Esther too is somewhat of a hypocrite. She is not even romantically interested in Buddy, but leads him to believe that she is.
