In this short chapter, the reader is introduced to a young orphan girl who has come to live with her mother in a small town in the south of England. The girl, who is called Miss Betsey, has been orphaned by her father, who has been killed in the line of duty. She is now a young woman of about sixteen years old, and she has just returned from a trip to England, where she had been sent by her mother to find a new home for her. She has been reunited with her "good girl" and is now living with the girl's mother, who lives in a boarding house in the town of Dorking, Surrey, south of London. The orphan girl is very upset to learn that her father has died and that her mother has been taken away to be treated as a prisoner of war, but she is comforted by the fact that she has been given a second chance at life.