In which Ralph Touchett decides to leave Rome for England, accompanied by Henrietta Stackpole, with whom he shares a quietly amiable understanding, while Caspar Goodwood reluctantly prepares to join the party under a promise to Mrs Osmond. Meanwhile, at Isabel Osmond's reception, subtle tensions surface amid genteel conversation, as Goodwood confronts the inscrutable Isabel with a final, poignant declaration of his enduring affection.