About this story
This conduct will bring grief to your mother and shame upon the house if you persist in it. You step into this one-chapter preview with Peter at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. The first grey light would show whether Peter returned to the vicarage's trust or followed a companion toward Lord Fetherston's ground. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
How it opens
Peter stood before his father with a gun in his hand, two dogs at his feet, and pheasants, partridges, and hares laid out as evidence.
Peter's FatherThis conduct will bring grief to your mother and shame upon the house if you persist in it.
Peter kept his eyes on the game rather than meet the vicar's grave look, though the dogs seemed to understand the charge better than he did.
Peter's FatherA gentleman's son is not excused for trespassing; the law does not make a gun honest because its owner has a good coat.
I know the birds are dead, but I do not yet feel the whole weight of what brought them here.
Choose
Admit that the birds were taken unlawfully.
Ask whether the dogs are to blame as well.
Defend the shooting as a family custom.