《两个魔法：螺丝在拧紧，覆盖结尾》

A search of the rooms reveals nothing. Mrs. Grose, who had assumed both children were with the governess, is bewildered. They agree to look without alarming the household, but ten minutes later they meet in the hall with the same blank report. Flora is nowhere to be found. Mrs. Grose suggests she may be in one of the unsearched rooms upstairs. The governess shakes her head. “She’s at a distance,” she says. “She has gone out. Without a hat.” When Mrs. Grose points out that the child is always hatless, the governess answers with terrible certainty: “She’s with her!”

The realization strikes her with almost cheerful calm. Miles had played to keep her quiet while Flora slipped away. The trick had been perfectly executed. She pulls the letter from her pocket and lays it on the hall table for Luke to take, then strides toward the door without waiting to dress. Mrs. Grose, alarmed at her going out bareheaded into the damp grey afternoon, joins her at once, and together they set off toward the grounds.

XIX

They make directly for the lake, which the governess believes is where Flora has gone. Since the afternoon she shared her terrible sighting at the pond with Mrs. Grose, she has watched the child incline toward that quarter of the grounds during their walks. Mrs. Grose resists this line of reasoning, fearing the governess means Flora is actually in the water, but the governess corrects her. She suspects Flora has returned to the very place where, the other day, she pretended not to see what only the two of them witnessed. Her brother has now managed it for her.

At the water’s edge there is no sign of the child on either bank. The boat is missing from its mooring. The governess declares this the strongest proof: Flora has rowed herself across and hidden the boat. She leads Mrs. Grose on a devious, overgrown path around the long oval of the pool, and at last they find the little craft tied to a stake in a fence on the far side. After passing through a gate, they step into the open and there stands Flora, a short way off on the grass, smiling as though her performance were complete. She plucks a spray of withered fern, drops it, and waits.

Mrs. Grose throws herself on her knees and clasps the child to her breast in a long, dumb convulsion. Over her shoulder Flora peeps at the governess with a face entirely serious. When the housekeeper finally rises, Flora’s hand remains in hers, and the silence between the three of them becomes heavy with unspoken understanding. Flora recovers her gaiety and asks, with apparent innocence, why the governess has no hat, and where Miles is. The small valour of the question undoes the governess utterly. She answers that she will tell Flora where Miles is only if Flora tells her where Miss Jessel is.