Poor, dear Sebastian. Margaret’s days at Lambeth seemed so long ago. Recalling the naive young woman she had been then was like remembering someone else entirely. She had long ago ceased to believe she and Sebastian could ever have been happy as man and wife, but he held a place in her heart as one of the few people to value her. Poor Susannah, though, must have been utterly bereft.

It was her words which had led Margaret to undertake the mission she was embarking upon today. The one consolation for my loss is knowing that by continuing with my work here, I am honouring my brother’s memory.

Sebastian would not wish anyone to grieve for him, but he would be delighted to know that his life’s work was being continued. By Susannah and Mr. Glass in Lambeth. And now hopefully here in New York, too, where Margaret was determined to pay her own practical tribute. Today she had an appointment at the Ladies’ Five Points Mission. A Methodist institution, which had been established in downtown New York almost twenty years ago, it was a day school and more importantly a lifeline for a large number of the poorest children, providing the neediest with food and clothing as well as an education.

Its practical efforts being made to relieve suffering reminded Margaret so much of Sebastian, when she had heard of them from Bina and Mouse, that she had taken it for a sign and written, offering her services. The sisters were appalled when she told them what she had done. Five Points had a dreadful reputation, an area where only the completely destitute or those without hope or prospects would live, but her maids’ protests only made Margaret more determined, thinking that Five Points was precisely the sort of parish Sebastian would choose, were he in New York.

Knowing that the sisters would do everything to dissuade her, Margaret had left this morning after breakfast without telling them where she was headed. Emerging from the park onto Broadway, she swung herself on board the white-topped streetcar; paid the driver for her ticket; and took her seat, taking shallow breaths while her oversensitive nose adjusted to the raw odour of humanity.