Richard prepares to lunch with Bunny Corcoran on an unseasonably hot Saturday and runs into Judy Poovey, who gossips about Bunny’s circle and recounts a past fight in which Henry and one of the twins badly injured Spike Romney. Judy lends Richard a lighter, elegant jacket, which Richard then passes off as a family heirloom when Bunny praises it.

At an upscale restaurant, Bunny drinks heavily, talks crudely, and boasts about his connections while giving Richard details about Henry’s background: Henry is extremely wealthy, secretive, brilliant with languages, and bears injuries from a childhood accident. After a lavish meal and excessive alcohol, Bunny reveals he has “forgotten” his wallet and pressures Richard to pay; when Richard cannot, Bunny phones Henry, who arrives furious and pays the enormous bill. On the drive back, Henry apologizes to Richard and makes clear Bunny routinely pulls this trick, leaving Richard embarrassed and wary.

The next day, Charles and Camilla approach Richard, explain that Henry and Bunny are longtime friends despite their clashes, and walk with him through the grounds, pointing out a ruined cemetery and interpreting three ravens as a possible omen. They impulsively invite Richard to dinner at their apartment; Richard accepts but feels out of place when Henry, Bunny, and Francis arrive, and the evening becomes a blur of private in-jokes, academic arguments, and Bunny’s bad manners. Richard leaves early, convinced he has failed to fit in, and the next morning returns to Julian’s seminar disheveled, sensing the group’s solidarity closing against him again.

Shaken, Richard doubts his decision to abandon other studies for Greek and goes to see Julian for reassurance. Instead, he overhears a private, unnerving exchange between Julian and Henry: Henry asks, “Should I do what is necessary?” and Julian replies, “You should only, ever, do what is necessary,” after which Henry kisses Julian’s cheek. Richard retreats, unsettled and unable to interpret what he heard.

Over the following week Richard grows isolated and sleepless, reading Greek late into the night and drifting through parties without connection. At one party a California girl repeats rumors—attributed to Seth Gartrell—that Julian’s Greek students “worship the Devil,” and Richard argues with her. Unexpectedly, Camilla finds Richard and invites him to leave immediately with her and Francis for the country; Francis drives them to his aunt’s enormous, mostly empty house, where Charles is already there playing piano and Bunny sleeps upstairs.

The weekend becomes the turning point in Richard’s relationship with the group: the country house’s grandeur and their leisurely rituals draw him in, and he begins to see the five as vivid, intimate people rather than distant figures. In later recollection, Richard describes how he is folded into their routines—drinking, studying, long walks, and repeated weekends at the house—while noticing small, troubling signs: unexplained disappearances, private jokes in Greek and Latin, odd injuries, a sudden obsession with weather, and hints of secret, messy activity. One vivid incident at the lake ends with Camilla badly cutting her foot on glass; Henry takes control, carries her back, and removes the shard, reinforcing both his authority and the group’s closeness even as Richard senses an undercurrent he does not yet understand.