Three girls of color—Pam, Bess, and Sue—watch the party from the sidelines, and they mount a set of marble stairs to survey the action from above. Bess obsesses about refreshments when suddenly, Pam spies something shocking: “Look!... How vile!... How bilious!” Bess witnesses it, too, but smaller Sue can’t see what they’re talking about (“You never tell me anything”). Before the two older girls can act, though, whatever disturbed them disappears, and the story ends.