Two days after Penelope Green's arrival, Evangeline rages in the parlor, declaring she hates Penelope, who keeps deflecting Evangeline's barbed dinner-table jabs and charming the Squire instead. Cordelia, embarrassed by her mother's pettiness, huddles silently, hoping to escape notice.

Cordelia recalls the previous day's ride, when Penelope maneuvered her into joining the outing. Mounted on the placid pony Minnow, Cordelia struggled with an ordinary horse for the first time. Falada paced beside her and deliberately winked at her, reigniting Cordelia's grief and sense of betrayal by her mother's familiar. After Evangeline and the Squire galloped off, Penelope sent Lord Evermore after them and confided to Cordelia that Richard is hopelessly in love with Hester. They invented absurd bird names together, and Penelope later told the stablemaster Cordelia was "good company"—a small kindness that astonished Cordelia.

Back in the present, Evangeline demands Cordelia spy on Penelope for scandalous information. She also reveals that Penelope is an untrained sorcerer, which Evangeline believes explains her charm. Cordelia offers a trivial detail about hair rinse and promises to keep listening, dreading Evangeline's threatened "desperate measures."

In the solar, Penelope, Imogene, and Hester draw Cordelia into a card game. Penelope delivers a comic lecture on cultivating style over fragile beauty—touching obliquely on her own smallpox scars. The conversation drifts into Penelope's frank admission of having been a man's mistress and her dismissal of young Baronet Vann's pursuit. Cordelia recognizes this is exactly the kind of ammunition Evangeline wants and resolves not to listen, distracting herself with the cards and accidentally winning a hand.