A Bramwell family friend (a former military colleague of Robert), Guy le Saux, returns to London from Canada with a new wife half his age, whom Guy had "selected" from a Canadian orphanage. Guy confides in Robert that certain aspects on the marital front have not as yet taken their natural course, but Robert and Eleanor soon suspect he is beating his wife.
Meanwhile, Daniel Bentley's widow has a 10-year-old daughter, Lil, whom Eleanor wants to propose for Guy's programme for relocation to Canada. But when Mrs. Bentley catches her son Sidney thieving, she is all too ready to send him off instead. Unfortunately, the all-scientific Guy finds Sidney substandard, on the basis of skull measurements. Dr. Marsham finds Sidney substandard on quite different grounds, when Sidney nicks his razor (and, in the process, nicks himself, as well).
Robert ejects his old friend from the house when he is convinced Guy has been beating his wife, but when Kathleen collapses and Robert must perform surgery on a suspected tumour, he finds embedded in her flesh numerous embroidery needles. The scarring indicates that some, at least, undoubtedly date back to well before the marriage. Then she tries to poison herself with carbolic acid. When Guy coldly states she is defective and ought to be put down like a dog, Robert is really appalled.