Voyage In The Dark

Ethel attempts to teach Anna the ways of being a manicurist. Anna takes little interest in both the job and Ethel and begins to show resentment toward both:

That’s what I can remember best—Ethel talking and the clock ticking. And her voice when she was telling me about Madame Fernande or about her father, who had a chemist’s shop, and that she was really a lady. A lady—some words have a long, thin neck that you’d like to strangle. And her different voice when she said, ‘A manicure, dear’ (120).

Anna lives life day-to-day while trying to come to terms with the reality of her experiences with Walter.

One day, Laurie stops by for lunch, and Ethel remarks: “‘Now, that’s the sort of girl I should want if I were a man’” (121). Laurie laughs at Anna’s lack of interest in her customers and mentions that this probably was not how Ethel thought it would be. She asks Anna to join her and her “two specimens” (121)for dinner.

When Anna returns home, she feels Ethel’s disapproval toward her: “I knew she was going to make a row sooner or later” (122).

The following day, a client burns his foot on scalding water because of an accident in which a couch breaks.