Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary

It is now March, Portia's first spring in London. She is riding the train to meet Mrs. Heccomb, the woman who she is going to stay with while Thomas and Anna are away in Capri. She is happy to be on her own; she has never traveled by herself before.

Mrs. Heccomb is a retired widow and had been Anna's governess until Anna turned nineteen. Later, when she had married, she and her husband moved to a little town by the sea, Seale, about 70 miles outside of London. The couple lived there, along with Mr. Heccomb's children from his first marriage, throughout most of the year. In the summer months, they moved to a farm further inland while they rented out their beach home.

It turned out that Mr. Heccomb's children from his first marriage, Daphne and Dickie, were living on...