It was a great surprise to me, as she had left us directly after we landed with the intention of returning to France.

But the news the letter contained was a far greater surprise, for she stated that Mabel had never gone aboard the vessel.
"The nurse had had some personal business to attend to before going aboard, and in order to save time had taken Mabel with her.

In some inexplicable manner Mabel had strayed from her side.

She had made frantic search for the child and finally, not daring to go to us with the truth, had conceived the idea of making us believe that she had taken Mabel aboard the ship.

She had bribed the purser, a Frenchman whom she knew, to corroborate her story, and had succeeded in her treacherous design.
"She wrote that she had longed over and over again to confess the truth, but had not dared to do so.