Part 5: Pages 321-351 Summary

21 January 1875. Miss Prior rushes to Millbank shortly after dawn, convinced something terrible has happened to Selina. However, when she arrives, Miss Prior learns that Selina has escaped. Miss Haxby believes that one of the matrons helped Selina by giving her a matron's boots and cloak. However, the night matron is there and claims that Selina had been in her bed at midnight. Miss Prior quickly leaves the prison, anxious to return home and see if Selina is there. When she arrives, a woman in a matron's cloak is waiting for her, but it is Mrs. Jelf, not Selina. Miss Prior welcomes Mrs. Jelf into her home and they begin to talk.

Mrs. Jelf admits that she had sneaked Selina out of the prison at nine o'clock and paid the night matron to say she was in her bed at...