In the days following her father's suicide, Irene permitted only Ardie to be near her. She even refused to attend Simon's funeral.
She refused to see Philo when he raced to the house after hearing the whole story from Bart who met the ship in a lighter before it docked.
Grief-stricken despite learning of Simon's embezzlement of company funds, Philo returned to his suite aboard ship rather than disturb Irene by remaining at the house. Bart moved in with him.
Three days later, Irene asked Ardie to bring Philo to her again. She received him in her father's study on the second floor. Ardie fidgeted in the lower hallway.
 When Philo came up the stairs, she greeted him at the study door in a somber gray dress. Her long, brown hair was upswept. Combined with her grim expression and the haughtiness of her demeanor, she seemed extraordinarily mature for one so young.
Not having seen her since babyhood, Philo was stunned. Expecting a schoolgirl, he encountered instead a woman he might have mistaken for Jane as she was when Simon courted her.
Irene invited him to sit in Simon's chair and took up a position standing in front of him with her hands clasped at her waist.
She brushed aside all expressions of sympathy.
"I understood from the conversation I overheard the day my father...died...that he stole a fortune from Duncan Cargo," she announced brusquely. "This house, therefore, along with everything in it, belongs to you. I choose to go to Maine and live with my great-aunt on Squirrel Island. She is the only family remaining to me. If I may take a few clothes with me, that is all I ask."
"Oh, my dear child," Philo protested, "I wish you would stay! I consider you my daughter."
Irene's eyes narrowed.
"You do have a habit of picking up strays, Captain," she said contemptuously. "I am not one of those."
She turned abruptly and walked to the door, leaving him with his mouth agape.
Looking back, she said: "I have enough money for a ticket to Boothbay Harbor. I shall leave tomorrow morning on the early train."
She went upstairs to her suite before he could speak, and, true to her word, left the next day. She allowed no one but Ardie to accompany her to the station.
On the platform as she boarded, he begged: "Please let me come. I hate to think of you traveling alone."
She shook her head. He pressed a large sum of money into her hand. The faint flicker of a smile crossed her lips.
"Ardie, only from you would I accept this," she said. "Don't forget me. We shall meet again someday."
The train began to move.
He ran alongside it waving, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"I love you, Irene!" he called.
Still standing in the entryway, she fluttered her hand in farewell, then went inside.
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