LE recites the end of Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" very nicely. Vicki watches, wearing yet another drab and shapeless sleeveless dress. At least she has a scarf around her neck. Julia comes in, looking especially spiffing with perfect hair and makeup and a beautiful dark blue dress. Roger addresses her as the countess DuPres, puzzling her and alarming Vicki.
Welcome, Professor Timothy Elliott Stokes! He and Ben are my favorite TD characters. The professor inherited Ben's shrewd smarts and has enhanced them with advanced education. He is impeccably dressed--one can imagine Ben getting nicer clothes as soon as he could afford them. Barnabas does a double take when he sees the professor. Stokes--whose manners and way of speaking are as impeccable and precise as his appearance--offers to shake hands. Barnabas hesitates a moment before accepting--but only because he has to suppress a slight smile of recognition.
Stokes mentions his ancestor's sudden change of circumstances and explains, Joshua Collins freed Ben and gave him a sum of money and full title to a plot of land just north of the village. Ben settled there, educated himself, and worked his farm till he died in his seventh-fifth year. [spoiler][This means he would have died in 1830--but a long time from now, we will see him still alive in his eighty-fifth year in 1840!][/spoiler] Thus Barnabas learns at last that his father kept the promise he made so long ago--and even did more. But Barn has a bad moment when Stokes says he's investigating the rash of sudden deaths in 1795.
But Barnabas lies to Julia, who once again threatens to expose him….