fifth business

Dunstan visits his empty house to collect his belongings and a special item that remains undisclosed. From Milo - now the town barber - he learns of all the gossip he missed. Apparently, people had always thought Mrs. Ramsay had continued to send Dunstan to visit Mrs. Dempster after her encounter with the vagrant. Mrs. Dempster survived the flu epidemic, but her husband did not. Paul Dempster, who was mocked viciously after his mother's shame, eventually ran away with the circus. Distraught at her son's disappearance and unable to take care of herself, Mrs. Dempster was taken in by an aunt who lives in Weston, near Toronto.

Dunstan auctions off his parent’s house and leaves town for Toronto, where he attends University and loses himself in history and literature.