It is February 1896, and a Valentine card arrives, addressed to "Dr. Bramwell". Robert assumes (wrongly) that it is meant for him, but cannot imagine who might have sent it. Meanwhile, old Nanny Pat arrives for a visit, and immediately takes a dislike to Kate who, after all, has only worked there for three years. Nanny is full of tales about the new job she is moving on to, but doesn't seem in a hurry to leave.
Eleanor has secured a substantial donation for the Thrift, and decides to celebrate by taking Dr. Marsham to a fair in a nearby street. In the "freak show" there, they see a young woman, named Rose Tully, with an enormously deformed head, being displayed as "the biggest brain on earth. When Rose is injured in a disturbance caused by dissatisfied customers, she is removed to the Thrift for treatment. Eleanor believes the deformity is a large cyst which could be removed by surgery, according to a recent paper by a Doctor Woolfenden, whom she consults in the matter. Rose is agreeable but Percy Banks, the fair's owner, insists that she must return to the fair with him.
Dr. Marsham counsels Eleanor to leave well alone, but she enlists her father's aid to obtain Rose's release from the travelling fair, and to perform the operation. Things are not as Eleanor expected, however, and when Percy Banks catches up with the Bramwells, they belatedly learn some concealed facts.