Book One, Chapters 28-33 Summary

Van is ten years of age in 1880 when he travels through the American West with his father. He reads the Great Russian writers and attends operas plays and other shows. A Mr. Plunkett teaches Van how to cheat at gambling. He uses some of Plunkett's tactics while in college in England.

In Chapter Twenty Nine, Van sails from Dover to Manhattan. He meets Ada. After one brief encounter, she becomes ill with pneumonia and he does not see her again before returning to England. He becomes a performer known as Mascadagama and no one knows his true identity until his college tutor finds out. He is given the choice of remaining a student at Chose or continuing his circus activities.

In Chapter Thirty One, Van visits Ardis Hall in 1888 and arrives in time for a party and...