How it opens
You were born in the old house at Devereux Court, to a father you could not remember and a mother you could not forget.
They died within a year of each other, and the house passed to your father's brother, and you passed with it, like a debt.
Uncle DevereuxYour way is marked out, boy, like a road on the map. All you bring to it is the walking.
Then I will bring the walking, sir, and my own map, and we will see which of the two is worn out first.
Choose
Take the commission, and please him, and put the poems in your knapsack.
Refuse the commission, and ask for the church, where reading is the trade.
Ask for three years at the university first, and promise to be judged after.