In the sixth letter, dated the following year (1862), Dr. Jordan’s mother writes to Mrs. Humphrey, requesting that she stop writing to her son. Mrs. Jordan explains that her son is recovering from a war wound and that another woman is caring for him.

In the seventh letter, dated several years later (1867), Reverend Verringer writes to Dr. Samuel Bannerling, who presided over the Lunatic Asylum when Grace was there. Reverend Verringer asks Dr. Bannerling to sign off on the petition he and others have composed in support of Grace’s release from prison.

In the eighth and final letter, also dated 1867, Dr. Bannerling replies to Reverend Verringer, refusing his signature of support. He rejects the evidence of Grace’s hypnotism, and he casts aspersion on Dr. Jordan, claiming the man was either exceedingly gullible or else a scoundrel in his own right. Dr. Bannerling closes by reprimanding Reverend Verringer for wandering astray from theology into the realm of modern science.

Summary: Part XV

The year is now 1873, and Grace recounts the story of being pardoned and regaining her freedom. Grace initially struggled with the sudden shift from being a “celebrated murderess” to “an innocent woman wrongly accused.” She also worried that her only option for survival once freed would be to work as a prostitute, but her friend Janet, the warden’s daughter, promised that a good home would be provided for her. On the day of her release in 1872, Janet and her father escorted Grace from the penitentiary and accompanied her on the ferry across Lake Ontario.

They arrived in the United States, and Janet informed Grace that Grace would live in Ithaca, New York, with a gentleman who would pick her up at the train station. When the gentleman appeared, it took Grace a moment before she recognized him as Mr. Kinnear’s neighbor Jamie Walsh. Jamie had initially believed Grace to be guilty, and he had testified against her at the trial. Many years later, and now a widower, he begged Grace’s forgiveness and asked her to marry him. Grace agreed.

Grace describes the conditions of her new life, and she says it’s like Heaven. However, she expresses perplexity at Jamie’s preoccupation with her suffering. He frequently desires to hear details about the murders, and her stories at once arouse him and create in him a need to be forgiven. Grace periodically says she forgives him, but secretly she believes that he should forgive her.

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