She had been anxiously searching for her and had not dared to tell Monsieur Stangerson of her disappearance.

Mathilde swore her to secrecy, so that her father should not know she had been away.

A month later, Mademoiselle Stangerson returned to her father, repentant, her heart dead within her, hoping only one thing: that she would never again see her husband, the horrible Ballmeyer.

A report was spread, a few weeks later, that he was dead, and she now determined to atone for her disobedience by a life of labour and devotion for her father.

And she kept her word.
All this she had confessed to Robert Darzac, and, believing Ballmeyer dead, had given herself to the joy of a union with him.