Police find Stella at Horsey Street at a turning point in her flight: she has stopped hiding from Edgar, but returning to the loft brings her into police hands instead. The encounter ends her immediate wandering and leads to a reunion with Max, though Stella is too depleted to take an active part in the questioning that follows.

The Decision to Return

After another unhappy night, Stella leaves Nick and wanders the streets, indifferent to her open coat, the cigarette in her fingers, or whether anyone notices her. She feels insubstantial, like a ghost, but makes a decision: it suddenly seems absurd to be running and hiding from Edgar rather than from the hospital authorities. In the rain, she takes a bus as far as Blackfriars and walks on to Horsey Street.

The return is not a confident approach. Boys stop their game to watch her turn into the alley, and their silent scrutiny does nothing to ease her dread. As she reaches the passage into the building, she falters more than once and thinks she cannot continue. The children follow her into the yard and remain there, still watching; their attention points to what she has not yet seen at the top of the stairs.

Found at the Loft

The loft door is open, and men are inside. Stella starts back down, but one of them has already seen her. He catches up halfway down the stairs and recognizes her as Mrs. Raphael. She does not recognize him and has never seen him before. His call brings two more men to the stairs, and they share his surprise at finding her there.

They lead Stella back up to the loft. Edgar is not there, and the men do not appear to know where he has gone. Once they establish that Stella cannot tell them his whereabouts, they do not question her immediately at the loft. She later says she was grateful they did not handle her roughly; the narrator judges that surprise, rather than aggression, shaped their response to her unexpected appearance.

At the Police Station

The next hours remain unreal in Stella’s memory. At a police station, a woman in uniform gives her a cup of tea. About an hour later, Max arrives. He and the police appear to adopt a gentle approach, treating Stella as a victim who has been seduced, manipulated, and abandoned by Edgar.

Stella tries to remain calm and cool, but she cannot sustain the effort. Before Max can speak, she is in his arms, clutching him tightly. She has been weak, alone, and desperate, and accepts the comfort of his touch without caring that it is the touch of a doctor and psychiatrist. For the moment, the need to be cared for outweighs the distinction between Max’s professional role and his place as her husband.

Passivity and Aftermath

Stella’s embrace does not settle what the reunion means. Later, the doctor recedes and the husband advances, and the account marks the beginning of a new nightmare. In the meantime she goes limp, becoming passive and pliant like a child or a sick person. She answers questions while those around her frown and murmur to one another, but makes no effort to understand their discussion or participate in decisions about her.

The discovery therefore brings Stella out of hiding without restoring her agency. She has chosen to return to Horsey Street, yet the open loft, the police station, and Max’s arrival turn that choice into a sequence managed by others. Her immediate refuge is care itself: she wants to be looked after, even as the gentle reception gives way to a more painful reckoning with her husband.