# Chapter 04 Editor-Scored Check

goal clarity: 9/10
  evidence: `"Theo had run the count"` through `"looking for spare chairs"` establishes his goal as managing the room; `"How did you two meet?"` creates the threat.
  revision note: none needed.

conflict escalation: 8/10
  evidence: pressure moves from seating adjacency (`"Two spaces, side by side"`) to public origin story (`"That's a real first version"`) to Ruth's private misread (`"Is it comped?"`).
  revision note: none needed.

revelation landing: 9/10
  evidence: `"June had invented nothing"` and `"There was no procedure for it being easy"` land the promised revelation that the cover works because both can improvise from truth.
  revision note: none needed.

character consistency: 8/10
  evidence: Theo turns stress into handling mugs/receipts; June insists on `"Separate check"`; Ruth asks one exact question and stops.
  revision note: none needed.

pacing: 8/10
  evidence: longest stretch without a stake-shift is the origin story from line 59 to line 115, but it changes stakes every few turns: Thursday correction, label count, pencil proof, line eight.
  revision note: none needed.

chapter close: 9/10
  evidence: `"He folded the smudged corner in and filed the list in the pocket where the stub lived"` closes on action and future pressure.
  revision note: none needed.

prose quality: 8/10
  evidence strongest: `"the couple by the window had reached the stage of pie"` and `"Ruth wasn't reading romance... She was reading an arrangement"` are premise-specific. Weakest: `"There was no procedure for it being easy"` risks theme-gloss but is sufficiently Theo-specific.
  revision note: none needed.

Chapter verdict: FOUNDATION-SOUND.
