Summary
The school enters a state of disarray following the disappearances. A local policeman, Constable Bumpher, is assigned to investigate the disappearances. He collects accounts of the afternoon in question and asks to speak with Edith. He gets little useful information from the picnickers or Mrs. Appleyard. Edith tells Bumpher that she saw Miss McCraw running up the rocks in her underwear, much to his great surprise. This proves to be the last piece of useful information she is able to impart.
Mrs. Appleyard prepares to write various letters to the families of the missing girls. She reflects on the fact that she lost her most prized students and wished it had been students like Sara or Edith who had vanished in their place. She notes that the three missing girls all come from families of some degree of wealth. She stamps the letters and sends them out. She feels anxious about the outcome of these disastrous events.
The following day Albert and Mike, the witnesses who saw the girls the afternoon of the picnic, have lunch together. They discuss the disappearances and wonder aloud what happened to the girls. They discuss undertaking a search of the rocks on their own. They sit by the side of a pond and watch a swan, remarking on its beauty. More searching occurs, to no avail. Hopes are briefly raised when a bloodhound locates a piece of Miss McCraw's underwear. The same animal spends a long time inspecting the circular platform where the girls were sitting. Bumpher becomes discouraged by the lack of evidence.
Mike looks around the rocks for signs of the missing girls. He camps out at the rocks and later falls into a strange daydream. Albert then goes out looking for Mike and finds him, alive and bloodied on some rocks. Albert also discovers a cryptic note in Mike's handwriting, instructing him to look above the bushes. With some assistance, Albert continues to search for whatever Mike was referring to in his note. Albert later finds Irma, who is bleeding and frail but otherwise unharmed. Mike remains in a daze as he recuperates from the incident and cannot recall much of what happened.
Irma's reappearance becomes front-page news. Everyone is heartened by her return to the school. Mrs. Appleyard immediately becomes concerned with people criticizing her handling of the disappearances and decides to crack down on the staff and students gossiping. She feels that one but not all of the students returning actually makes her look more incompetent than them all vanishing. She later receives a telegram from Irma's father saying Irma is to be pulled out of the school at once.
Mrs. Appleyard panics, as Irma's father is one of the wealthiest parents to pay tuition at the school. She looks into the school ledger and bitterly notes that Sara's guardian is extremely late on several tuition payments. She immediately pulls Sara out of her art classes, saying she cannot take extracurricular courses until this matter is settled. Sara is upset by this news and tells her art teacher, Mrs. Valange. Mrs. Valange confronts Mrs. Appleyard about this decision, to no avail. She ends up leaving the school and writes to Sara, saying she is welcome to stay at her home whenever she wishes.
Things become increasingly tense at the school, as students and teachers begin to depart. One evening, Dora Lumley, a junior governess, finds Sara sitting alone in the dark in her room. The narrator notes that it is the same room Sara once shared with Miranda and that it still has all of Miranda's belongings, including her valentines and portrait. Disturbed by the scene, Dora writes to her brother, Reg, expressing a desire to leave the school forever.
Analysis
Wealth is a central theme of this section of the book. Mrs. Appleyard shows a clear preference for students based on how much money they have. She is desperate to hold onto Irma as a student because the school needs Irma's father's money. In contrast, she is constantly cruel to Sara Waybourne, going out of her way to penalize her for breaking the rules or making late tuition payments. Similarly, she is acutely aware of exactly how much each student's family makes. She cruelly wishes it were Edith and not Miranda, Irma, or Marion who had disappeared, as they come from well-off families and are in good standing at the school. These moments of calculation show how the girls' treatment at the school is dramatically shaped by how much money they have, as Mrs. Appleyard places distinctly different values on their attendance.
Gossip is another important theme in this part of the story. Newspapers immediately latch onto the story of the disappearances, coming up with over-the-top explanations of what happened that afternoon. Similarly splashy headlines are published in the aftermath of Irma's return. Lindsay captures the way in which these publications show a disregard for the facts, as no explanations are substantiated by eyewitness accounts or physical evidence. Their description of the scandal is entirely driven by a desire to create lurid content that will sell newspapers. As the narrator notes, these papers deal in the realm of "situations" not "facts," as situations require no oversight or scrutiny.
Propriety is another important theme. Mrs. Appleyard continues to be characterized as inflexible and harsh. She takes out a great deal of frustration on Sara Waybourne, pulling her out of art classes because her guardian is late on tuition payments. She does not do this for any other student and is described as having a particular dislike of Sara. This action seems to be in the name of the rules, but is actually another example of her penalizing Sara for something that is outside of her control. Mrs. Valange's reaction to Mrs. Appleyard's decision further solidifies this impression. Her focus on the rules is revealed to be not only harsh but centered on her own personal feelings about students. She uses proprietary information as a means of masking her cruel behavior.
Queerness is also a theme in this part of the novel. Sara is devastated by the loss of Miranda. She continues to sleep in the room they shared and leaves it virtually untouched. Lindsay subtly highlights how Sara's devotion to Miranda takes on a distinctively romantic undertone. She has little affection for anyone else but feels intense and unwavering towards Miranda, even in her absence. Lindsay focuses on how Sara's feelings for Miranda go beyond simple friendship and were fostered by their daily proximity.
This second part of the book shows the characters grappling with the aftermath of the disappearances. Irma's reappearance, seemingly a happy event, creates more problems for Mrs. Appleyard, as it does not fully redeem her in the public eye and Irma ultimately does not remain at the school. These chapters show the school's rapid decline, as it loses money and its students suffer from the tension and unease on campus.
