On the morning of the same day Florence had received a letter from her mother.  Bertha Keys had gone away on the previous evening to visit a sick cousin, and in consequence had not the charge of the postbag.  She was very unwilling to leave at this critical moment, but the cousin was ill, required her services.  Mrs. Clavering was willing to spare her for one night, there was no help for it; she must go.  "I must only trust that no letter will come from Dawlish," she said to herself; "but after all, even if it does, it cannot really matter.  Florence must sooner or later feel that she is in my power; perhaps the sooner the better."