Third Period Chapter 51 What Next

What should she do with the terrible secret?

She ought to inform the police. But there were two objections. First,
the nurse may have been mistaken in supposing her patient to be dead.
She herself had no choice but to escape as she did. Next, the dreadful
thought occurred to her that she herself until the previous day had
been the man's nurse--his only nurse, day and night. What was to
prevent the doctor from fixing the guilt of poisoning upon herself?
Nay; it would be his most obvious line of action. The man was left
alone all the morning; the day before he had shown every sign of
returning strength; she would have to confess that she was in hiding.
How long had she been there? Why was she in hiding? Was it not after
she had poisoned the man and when she heard the doctor's footstep?
Naturally ignorant of poisons and their symptoms, it seemed to her as
if these facts so put together would be conclusive against her.
Therefore, she determined to keep quiet in Paris that day and to cross
over by the night boat from Dieppe in the evening. She would at first
disclose everything to Mrs. Vimpany and to Mountjoy. As to what she
would tell her mistress she would be guided by the advice of the
others.

She got to London in safety and drove straight to Mr. Mountjoy's hotel,
proposing first to communicate the whole business to him. But she found
in his sitting-room Mrs. Vimpany herself.