Julia Romley has lived a charmed life, from finding success living in big cities like Chicago and New York, and marrying the perfect man to enjoy a lovely marriage. She is at a party where she is the most vibrantly dressed, but unlike the other party-goer's expectation of her, she visibly is agitated and withdrawn. While Julia tries her best to appear as her usual vivacious and entertaining personality, she is distracted by a woman named Myra, and the man she brought with her named Ralph Tyler. Throughout the night she is irritated at Myra for always dealing with "impossible people," and her dark mood confuses the rest of the guests, leaving them to wonder if her perfect relationship with her husband Jim had met a snag. Jim, however, is just as confused by her behavior. While Jim and Julia dance and chat at the party, he explains that Ralph Tyler is an explorer who just returned from Asia, where no one expected to see him alive again. He is an impressive person who's achieved greatness, and when Jim and Ralph met again, Jim was pleased that Ralph remembered him from when they were schoolmates. The knowledge of Jim and Ralph's previous aquaintance made Julia even more upset. Julia withdraws to a quiet area to be away from the party, and laments how Ralph's appearance disrupted her peaceful and happy life. But she resolves to fix the situation- she would meet with Ralph and beg him not to ruin her marriage. After sending a servant off with a note to Ralph to meet her at the summer house, Julia goes to nervously sit and wait for him. Ralph appears and waits for Julia to speak, unsure of what Julia had wanted to see him for. Julia begins begging for him to keep quiet about her having been his mistress when she was young. She tells him that Jim wouldn't understand that a poor, young woman had to survive by any means necessary, and if he knew that she had slept with him it would ruin her marriage, her little happiness. While she is speaking, Ralph attempts to stop her multiple times to tell her she's made a mistake, but Julia presses on refusing to hear anything that sounded like like a "no." But when Julia finished, Ralph finally has the chance to say "I've been trying to tell you that you've made a mistake. I'm sorry. However, I can assure you that your secret is safe with me. It will never be from my lips that Jim Romley hears you have been - er - what you say you have been." From this response, Julia realizes with horror that she had just told all of that to the wrong man.