"Not one!"
"Or friends who could take charge of you?"
"I know absolutely nobody in England."
"Who are your relations, then? Surely you must have some in some portion of the globe?"
"Not any near ones. We have some cousins in New Zealand, at a farm right up in the bush."
"Where did your father come from? Hadn't your mother any relations?"
"Father was born in New Zealand, but his grandfather came out from England. Mother was an American, from Texas, I believe. Her mother was Spanish. I never heard about her relations. She died when I was a baby, and we've always been travelling about ever since I can remember."
"Humph! That doesn't look well. Had your father no permanent address, then, where letters would always be forwarded to him?"
"I never heard him say so."
Gipsy stood with her little brown hands pressed hard together, and her mouth set tightly while she answered this unwelcome catechism. Miss Poppleton might have pitied the sad look in the dark eyes, but she went on bluntly: