Preview: Part I, Chapter 2
Reading boundary
Start: It was the Dover road that lay, on a Friday night late in November,
Stop after: if recalling to life was to come into fashion, Jerry!
The narrative narrows from national history to a mail coach laboring along the Dover road on a cold November night. Mud, mist, darkness, and the threat of highway robbery make ordinary travel slow and tense; strangers guard their identities as carefully as their possessions.
Sounds and partial glimpses control the scene. A message reaches one passenger, while its recipients understand more than the armed guard, the other travelers, and the messenger can know.