Mrs. Van Brugh is reading letters in Dr. Athelney's home, where she has been living ever since Smailey has made her penniless. After finally dropping the last letter – a request for her to sit to be photographed by "Scumley and Ripp" – in disgust, she gives vent to her frustration: Her name is now "a word of reproach in every household in the country," her "story a thing to be whispered and hinted at, but not to be openly discussed, for reason of its very shame." Her years of atonement are "held to be mere evidence of skilfully sustained hypocrisy." Even Ruth has left her. Eve tries to comfort her. Mrs. Van Brugh still feels guilty: As Eve has now been shown to be illegitimate, Eve too will have to suffer, including losing her husband-to-be, Fred. Eve refuses to assign guilt to her mother, insisting she can "see nothing else" but "the perfect woman of the past eighteen years". They embrace.