Part One, Chapter Two: A Wooden Nutmeg Summary

March recognizes the house as one that he visited when he was eighteen years old. At the time, he traveled door-to-door selling knick-knacks to wealthy homeowners. He had prided himself on selling only valuable merchandise, not cheap rip-offs, but the more he traveled, the more he realized that in comparison to the finery such homeowners owned, his merchandise was cheap tat. When March arrived at the house all those year ago, he was greeted in the drive by a six-foot tall, strikingly beautiful slave woman named Grace. Even though Grace is sure that her master will not be interested in March's notions, she has impeccable Southern manners and invites him in for something to eat. The master, Augustus Clement, invited March into his massive library and the two men engaged in a lively conversation about...