Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary

Charles is sick again when he returns that night, however he is recovered by the next morning. Vivien goes to the art gallery where she works and tries not to think about how sick her husband might be. Charles calls her soon after she arrives and asks if it would be all right for him to have dinner with a friend from college, Andrew Flint. Vivien assures him it will be fine. Cumberland, one of the owners of the gallery, shows Vivien some paintings he has recently bought at auction after she finishes on the phone. The paintings are by Joseph Seymour, a famous artist who recently passed away. His last assistant, Stewart Merk has set a meeting with Cumberland and his partner, Maitland, to sell them other paintings he inherited after the artist's death.

Phillip Slack is at work at...