At the banquet, Esther uses a fingerbowl to clean her hands. She recalls the first time she ever saw one, at the home of her benefactress Philomena Guinea, a famous novelist whose scholarship money pays Esther’s way through college. At the time she mistook the small bowl of warm water and flowers for soup and drank the entire thing.

After the banquet Esther attends a movie premiere with the other interns but begins feeling sick. She leaves with Betsy, and by the time they reach their hotel both girls are throwing up. Esther shuts herself up in the bathroom and vomits until she faints. When she wakes up a nurse informs her that all of the girls who attended the banquet have food poisoning. The nurse puts her to bed and gives her a sedative injection. Esther wakes up for a second time to find Doreen by her bed. Doreen, perfectly well, tells her that all of the crabmeat salad at the banquet was contaminated with ptomaine.

At seven o’clock the next morning Esther is awoken by a phone call from a man named Constantin, a simultaneous interpreter at the UN. Constantin is a friend of Mrs.