Nan Hemlock invited Alfred to share a casserole made from an unidentified plant found near the old will-o’-wisps’ stump. Alfred accepted cautiously, bringing his own spoon and ivy-patterned porcelain bowl, while repeatedly warning that any digestive consequences would provoke Shakespearean recitations. Nan clarified that the earlier Henderson incident had involved a trifle, not this dish, and reminded him that he had previously left his spoon in her dish. The food became increasingly unusual: Nan said the casserole had sung until it was removed from the oven, and later described it as root-and-marrow casserole with a crust that sighed when cut. Alfred arrived, recovered his spoon, and conceded that the rabbit marrow and mysterious root had impeccable provenance, though he objected to Nan’s criticism of his earlier comparison of her roast parsnip to mildew. Nan countered that he had deserved her reaction because he had mocked her walk at the Spring Fling. Alfred admitted his parsnip metaphor was overwrought but rejected the accusation that his laughter was justified. He ate the casserole and returned the bowl, promising to bring Nan a periwinkle page the next day as a peace offering. Aldous reported that his printer had independently produced the phrase “DREAMING IN BLUE” in periwinkle ink. Nan called it a truce and planned to frame the page alongside another unusual print reading “ERROR” in hopeful green. When Aldous tried to make a copy for Alfred, the printer fell silent; he left it rosemary and backed away. Alfred dismissed the printer’s behavior as malfunction rather than mysticism, though he acknowledged the casserole and recovered spoon. The conversation then turned to Alfred’s lonely, silent flat and his stamp collection. Aldous offered a magical spell producing murmuring radiators, but Alfred declined, saying he preferred silence. Aldous praised philately as a form of quiet magic; Alfred instead called it taxonomy and described his stamps as elegies for vanished empires. Aldous ultimately kept the periwinkle page for an album of misfires. He reported that the printer had sighed mechanically, apparently wounded by Alfred’s criticism, while Alfred maintained that order and melancholy—not magic—defined his collection.