Pages 16 - 30 Summary

For years Pointz Hall had hosted a pageant of sorts. Mrs. Swithin and Mr. Oliver wonder whether it will be fair or rainy. If fair the pageant will be on the terrace; if rainy, in the barn. Mrs. Swithin wonders about the well-being of Isa's children and Isa replies, knock on wood, they are fine. Mrs. Swithin then wonders about the origin of that notion, knocking on wood, and Mr. Oliver derides it as superstition. Privately, Mr. Oliver fails to see how a member of his family (Mrs. Swithin) could so whole-heartedly give in to faith, religion, and superstition. He himself is a skeptic and atheist. Nevertheless, he spends time looking up the phrase in an encyclopedia.

Mrs. Swithin helps some younger neighbors set up the barn for the pageant; the young nobles privately laugh at Swithin's odd manner. Meanwhile, the...