real evil influences or are they willing instruments of Quint and Jessels' haunting of the governess? This appears to be the case when Flora disappears from the house and is found at the lake, where Mrs Grose throws herself on her knees and embraces the girl. The governess describes the scene:While this dumb convulsion lasted I could only watch it- which I did the intently when I saw Flora's face peep at me over our companions shoulder.....still, all this while nothing more passed between us save that Flora had let her foolish fern again drop to the ground. What she and I had virtually said to each other was that pretexts were useless now.' Had a transformation really occured in Flora's face, from looking angelic and artless to ominous smiling' that said more about her lack of innocence? Or again, is it paranoia in the governess's mind? If not paranoia, then is it perhaps the anxieties she has about the children's involvement, making her so nervous that she is misreading the situation.The situation intensifies for the governess when Miss Jessel appears at the lake and Mrs Grose cannot see her. When the narrator implores her colleague to look, getting ever more desperate to be vindicated, Mrs Grose's response defeats her:Her deep groan of negation, repulsion, compassion - the relief at her exemption- a sense, touching even to me even then, that she would have backed me up if she could.'As the governess feels her defeat and the triumph of Miss Jessel presses on her, Mrs Grose allies herself with Flora, declaring:She isn't there, little lady, and nobody's there- and you never see nothing my sweet! How can poor Miss Jessel- when poor Miss Jessel's dead and buried? We know, don't we love?' But after a night with Flora, Mrs Grose confesses to the governess that she has heard things from the girl that seem to confirm she is being affected by some improper influences. The narrator is relieved and appears to get justification from Mrs Gro...
