In which a serene solicitor reflects with quiet satisfaction on legal safeguards laid to protect a country estate, while the newlywed couple at the centre of these affairs engage in a delicate and tense discourse about the management and preservation of their ancestral land. The scene is suffused with a subtle gloom, as the gentle yet firm Dorcas confronts her husband’s stormy resolve, revealing glimpses of divergent temperaments beneath the genteel surface of their domestic life.