The Patrician Part 1, Chapter 21

In which Courtier wrestles with a growing restlessness amid the insulated and ordered world of Monkland Court, feeling both pity and an uneasy fascination for its denizens, while the presence of Barbara kindles a rare yearning to break through their cultivated hardness. His departure is marked by charged partings and quiet affirmations, leaving him caught between the worlds of settled security and the untamed hopes that stir within him.