The gold watch nobody claims

Lee, now immaculate in black broadcloth, comes home to make a winter melon soup while Adam reports what he has learned by accident: Aron has covered a whole year's work and will sit his college examinations early. Adam buys a massive gold watch, keeps it wound in his drawer, and orders a turkey, a cake and champagne for the night of the announcement. At the rectory, Mr. Rolf lets Aron study in a quiet room, guides him through his vow of celibacy, and confides that for five weeks a veiled woman has been sitting at the back of evening service — the owner of a house of ill fame — whom he hopes, with tact, to raise up. Liza Hamilton dies. When the results come, Aron says nothing at home and goes to dinner at the rectory; Adam, told the news by Cal, pretends he already knew. Cal waits on the porch steps to beat his brother, and Lee talks him out of it, then blocks Aron's way with two small fists until he sits down and admits he wants to leave a dirty town.

Adam lies to his son to protect the pleasure of a surprise already spoiled, and Cal catches him at it — a small piece of theatre that costs more than it looks. The Rolf scenes run a second story alongside: a clergyman flattered by his own charity, describing the veiled woman at the back of the church as an opportunity. Lee's absurd fists answer both.