- We enter the Meyrick household: it's quiet and looks out on the river. Kate, Amy, and Mab are sitting around the table. Their house is shabby and small, but they feel deeply attached to it.
- The narrator paints a really quaint picture of the Meyrick family. They are small; their house is small. They all love each other. Everything is apparently peachy.
- The Meyrick ladies are all sitting around reading and sewing. Mab talks about how she wishes she had some soldiers to care for. It seems that they're all waiting for something exciting to happen.
- There's a knock on the door. It's Daniel. He and Mrs. Meyrick go in the parlor and close the door – they have something serious to discuss.
- Daniel tells Mrs. Meyrick about everything that just happened. Mrs. Meyrick says she's honored to help and asks him to bring the young woman in. Then she tells Mab she has someone better to take care of than conscripts (that is, soldiers) – she gets a "girl who was going to drown herself in despair!" We're sure that's how the young woman wants to be introduced.
- The girls ooh and ahh over the idea of taking care of an exotic, almost-drowned Jewish woman.
- The young woman enters the house. Mab immediately tells her that they will love her and take care of her, because obviously these things happen in real life.
- The young woman introduces herself as a "Jewess" and says she assumes that they thought she was wicked. Everyone assures her that they think she's good.
- The young woman introduces herself as Mirah Lapidoth. She says that she escaped from Prague all by herself, and that she's now in London to find her mother and brother, from whom she was taken as a child.
- Daniel says he's got to leave but promises to come back the next day. Mirah blesses him.