Charles Sheldon, a supplier of surgical equipment to the Thrift, arrives with an emergency casualty, a flamboyantly dressed young woman who he says ran out in front of his carriage. When Eleanor examines the patient, she is shocked to discover it is in fact a young man, Frederick Hackett. The other patients and staff of the Thrift are none too pleased to have a "Marjory" in their midst, but his injuries are too severe for Eleanor not to keep him in overnight.
Back at the Bramwell home, Robert has been persuaded by widow Elizabeth Quail to entertain her "spiritual leader" Mr. Sullivan, a Sally Army zealot whom Mrs. Quail believes could be of advantage to the Thrift.
The next day, Mr Beamish, a Thrift patient with an open wound, pops out of the infirmery for a pint and returns, roaring drunk and carrying a broken bottle, with which he slashes young Frederick Hackett before fleeing. Eleanor struggles to save Hackett, and gives her own blood for a transfusion. When Charles Sheldon pops in to see how the young fellow is doing, and learns of the vicious attack, he is far more distressed than a stranger ought to be, and Eleanor realises he is the "kind gentleman" Hackett has mentioned as his benefactor.
In a desperate attempt to save Hackett from what she sees as a life of wickedness, Eleanor convinces him to enter Mr. Sullivan's True Gospel Reformatory, but it is a miscalculation that Eleanor comes to regret.