About this story
The boys have the same age, colouring, and size; I know our son only because everyone says his clothes keep the answer. You step into this one-chapter preview with Jane Humphreys at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. The unresolved intention followed you home. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
How it opens
Your wife Jane nursed her own month-old son and Captain Clinton's child after Mrs Clinton became dangerously ill.
John HumphreysThe boys have the same age, colouring, and size; I know our son only because everyone says his clothes keep the answer.
Jane asked which infant you believed yours, then turned to the wealth one child would inherit and the soldier's life expected for the other.
One sleeps toward an estate and one toward the ranks, yet neither face tells which future adults have placed above it.
John HumphreysA father's guess is not identification; I will not choose because a question demands confidence.
Look once at both gowns and the drawer before parade, fixing what is present without knowing why it may matter.