From Southsea, Anna Morgan reminisces about her upbringing and her current life. She admits she did not like England in the beginning although she “got used to everything except the cold and that the towns we went to always looked so exactly alike” (8).

Anna travels with a theatre company as a chorus girl, and she is accompanied by another older girl and colleague, Maudie. They both stay together at a lodging run by a lady whom Maudie refers to as an “old goat” (8).

As Anna reads a book, Maudie suggests they check the theater for letters and, upon finding none, they go to a store to buy stockings. Maudie comments on Anna’s “ladylike” (10) appearance and realizes they are being followed by two men.

Together, the quartet goes toward the shop and Anna chooses two stockings, which the man she had been walking with pays for. Maudie invites them back to their rooms for tea. Upon Maudie’s questioning, the men introduce themselves as Jones and Jeffries.

Anna feels uneasy with them: “I hated them both. You pick up people and then they are rude to you. This business of picking up people and then they always imagine they can be rude to you”(18).