A widow had a certain status in Victorian society ...

Why would a married woman, recently widowed, use her maiden name (Kelly) and not her married name (Davies)? A widow had a certain status in Victorian society ...

"Barnett told the press that she 'kept out of the way' on one occasion when her father came to London to look for her. A story that suggests that she was anxious to escape her past. It is also unlikely that Barnett recalled her random recollections accurately. Nevertheless, there is almost certainly some truth in Barnett's narrative." Sugden.

But then if she was intent on hiding why use one of the names by which she was known? Why not create an alias?

She was in contact with at least one of her relatives in Ireland. Perhaps that answers my question posed above regarding an alias. Mary's Landlord, John McCarthy, believed she received letters from her mother. But Mary stated she was estranged from her family. I believe the correspondence was from her 'sister' Bridget. She doesn't reappear in the census until 1891. I think she returned to Ireland with her Irish husband, Edward Davies the cab driver, for the period covering the census of 1881 and soon after her marriage.

OK, I've answered my question about not inventing a name, but why return to her maiden name?