Chapter 18 Summary

The Van Ryn's neighbors change their attitude when they hear about the baby's death, and a year of constant entertainment at Dragonwyck begins. Their many visitors include American aristocrats, English nobility, and veterans returning from the Mexican War. The entertainment, which begins early in the morning and lasts until midnight, is constant, dazzling, and exhausting, and Miranda is carried along by the momentum of all this activity, which seems to have no particular purpose.

Van Ryn programs events in such a way that no one comes to know his wife as an individual, and Abigail is still not invited for a visit. When all contact with Jeff Turner is forbidden, she realizes that Nicholas wants no reminders of the baby's death.

Peggy discovers that their relationship suffers because Miranda is so busy, and that there is something frightening about Nicholas as well. Dragonwyck...