Unnamed Group of People Elly Invents

Elly invents this "party" of people she will be visiting in order to explain her absence to Philip - and her need for his silent cooperation. She says that the group she'll be with is comprised of "people you don't know and that I don't expect to see again before I am married" (215). Since this party is meant to assuage any fears Philip might have about another man, one assumes she imagines it to be a respectable gathering of whites in the social class she shares with Paul, though she adds that "there's another man in the party," and so her mother "won't understand" her going (215), treading a fine line in describing an outing that should not concern a fiance even if it concerns a mother.