Part 2 Chapter 11 Summary

Amanda recalls that Mathilda does not ask, as she would, how she could get pregnant but who the father is. Amanda plans never seeing him again, so it does not matter. Mathilda creates a plan to say that they find the baby: that a poor serving girl knows that Amanda is a nurse, comes for help, and dies in a terrible birth. Knowing that Mathilda is an excellent mother, Amanda gives the baby to her to raise with her daughter. Slowly Amanda accepts the idea and rejoices in being safe.

Forcing Ruth to swim is a mistake. Three years later she still wonders what her real motive is and what Mathilda would think. She is bitter that Ruth keeps slipping through her fingers and knows that she should not grasp. She is glad to have Imogene near and that Imogene has...