“Have you any trace of her father and mother?”
“No, they said the father’s name was Jones, but I am not sure that was her father’s true name. Both her father and mother died when she was a baby, they say.”
Mr. Brooks looked puzzled.
“Did the mother leave nothing when she died, that people might know her by?”
Miss Rose reached into her little black bag and brought out the picture. Mr. Brooks did not take it at first.
“They said the father’s name was Jones; did they tell you his first name?” he asked.
“No, just Jones. I could learn no other name.”
Miss Rose held out the picture, and Mr. Brooks’s hand trembled as he took it.
After one look, he carried it to the window.
There he held it to the light, and gazed at it a long time.