The End of the Chapter

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Captain Ferse is found dead in a chalk pit and, after an inquest Dinny and her family quietly manage, the verdict of death from misadventure spares scandal while they suppress awkward details.
Meanwhile Hubert is committed for extradition on a Bolivian charge, provoking Jean, Alan and Dinny into desperate schemes (Jean flying to Brussels, Dinny pawning an emerald) and a publicity-and-politics stratagem—printing Hubert’s diary and Bobbie Ferrar’s intervention—wins the Home Secretary’s consent to release him.

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Wilfrid Desert, physically ruined and despairing, resolves to leave England for the East, sends farewell letters and his dog Foch to Dinny.
Dinny is shattered—she weeps alone, receives the dog and the news, and her family rallies with sympathy while agreeing, awkwardly, to treat the affair as if it never happened.
She quietly gives her father money to save Condaford and wanders the fields and night skies to steady herself as Wilfrid slips away toward Siam.

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A sensational divorce trial produces contradictory testimony; the jury finds Lady Corven and James Croom guilty of adultery, awards no damages, and the legal costs are afterwards quietly settled.
Tony Croom is devastated then recovers; Clare resumes a liaison with him while Dinny, after wrestling with her past, accepts Eustace Dornford’s steady devotion.
Dinny and Dornford become engaged and marry, and the family reflects on duty, continuity and preserving the old social order.