in and apologises and walks her to a taxi. The next day she receives some money in a letter from him, in which he apologises. She goes out to buy some clothes with the money. Back home she becomes ill and sends him a letter asking him to visit. Walter visits, buys her food and a warm coverlet for her bed, and pays a doctor to see her. Anna visits Walter again, and when he puts his hand on her knee, says that she must go, and begins to cry. But he tells her to be brave and they end up going to bed together. She loses her virginity. Anna is now supported as a "kept woman"; she moves to better quarters and waits all day for letters from Walter arranging meeting times. She has fallen in love with him. One day a letter arrives from Maudie, saying that she will visit soon, and they go for a walk in Hyde Park. Anna goes to visit Walter and meets Vincent, his cousin. She tells Walter she doesn't like him and then begins to tell him about her early life in the Caribbean. They make love, and she lies awake. Anna goes to visit her stepmother, Hester, who tells her that there is no more money for her from her father's Caribbean estate, which Hester has sold. Hester also explains that she sent a letter to Anna's Uncle Bo saying Anna would be better off in the Caribbean, but that he would need to pay half of her fare to get there. Uncle Bo's reply accuses Hester of cheating Anna out of her inheritance, which Hester denies vehemently. She argues she cannot afford to help Anna financially any longer, and that it is her uncle's responsibility. Hester states that she does not approve of Anna's uncle because he is open in his acceptance of both the black and white children in his family, and gives all the children the family's last name. Her abhorrence of miscegenation is depicted negatively in the text, as a sign of her intolerant bigotry, for her major concern is the appearance of impropriety and not the impropriety itself. Hester doesn't approve of black-white friendship at all; we learn that she got very annoyed when Anna got too close to the black servant, Francine, and eventually had her sent away. Anna's uncle, in turn, doesn't approve of