The Innocents Chapter 3

In which Father and Mother Appleby arrive at the Tubbs farm on Cape Cod for their annual summer visit, rekindling old friendships and settling into the gentle rhythms of rural life marked by the scent of salt marshes, the lure of clam digging, and the conviviality of cribbage games. Their peaceful idyll, seasoned with the quiet dignity of small-town traditions and the charms of moonlit evenings, is stirred by a spirited motor-car excursion that leads them to an artfully quaint tea-room, where Father's urbane bravado meets the unaccustomed silliness of selecting teas and paying unexpectedly high bills.