In which the diligent Joseph Willet undertakes his customary journey on a weary mare to settle a yearly account yet finds diversion in an errand that brings him to the locksmith's household, where the charms and rebuffs of young Dolly Varden fill the air with both hope and despondency. The scene unfolds with a mingling of domestic sharpness and tender longing, casting a gentle melancholy over the once proud and now faded mansion that shadows their quiet lives.