About this story
You had come from the Mandarin Islands to live with Emily and Louis while your parents remained overseas. You step into this one-chapter preview with Emily Trevelyan at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. Before one night ended, husband and wife had closed separate doors on the two words neither would give first. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
How it opens
Two years after your sister's marriage, the Curzon Street drawing room still appeared to justify every early hope.
You had come from the Mandarin Islands to live with Emily and Louis while your parents remained overseas.
Colonel Osborne has called again, Nora; please stay if Louis returns before he leaves.
Choose
Do you need company, or a witness that nothing improper occurs?
Would it be kinder to receive him only when Louis is here?