Bailey wanders back into the circus courtyard, watches the sparkling bonfire, and buys a bag of chocolate mice to make up for a half-eaten dinner. Still replaying the illusionist’s silent performance in his mind, he chooses a new path and notices a small tent advertising a fortune-teller.

Inside, the tent’s quiet, empty vestibule feels eerie until a woman’s voice invites Bailey through a beaded curtain that parts easily under his hand. In a candlelit room, a veiled fortune-teller sits at a table with a deck of cards and a crystal sphere. Bailey pays “whatever you wish,” and the money vanishes under her hand.

Bailey admits he is torn between his grandmother’s plan for Harvard and his father’s expectation that Bailey take over the farm, and he cannot say what he wants. The fortune-teller has Bailey select a single card to represent him: a galloping knight labeled Cavalier d’Épées, which she interprets as movement or travel. Bailey then chooses a pile of cards, and she lays out a reading in a complex spread.

Reading the spread, the fortune-teller notes a journey, heavy responsibility, and that Bailey is part of a chain of events whose consequences he may not see. Then she turns a card and abruptly says Bailey is looking for Poppet. She confirms Bailey’s name without being told and explains they share a mutual acquaintance: the red-haired girl, Poppet, and her brother, whom Isobel has known all their lives.

Isobel assures Bailey that Poppet is still at the circus and that Bailey will see her again. Asked whether Bailey likes the circus, Bailey answers that he finds it wonderful; Isobel says that will “help,” but does not explain how. She closes the reading with a warning about decisions and surprises, reminding Bailey the future is not fixed. Bailey thanks her, offers her a chocolate mouse (which she places atop the crystal sphere), learns her name is Isobel, and follows her suggestion to take the path to his right as he leaves, feeling strangely steadier and less burdened by his uncertainty.