“At all sorts of unexpected places. Now, Zizi, have you realized yet that Lawrence North married that Mrs Curtis?”
“You’re sure?”
“Practically; he married a widow named Curtis, who formerly lived in Greenvale, Vermont. I’ve not struck any other. And besides, it connects North with this whole Varian case and I’m sure he is mixed up in it.”
“But how?”
“That’s the question. But here’s a more immediate question, Zizi. Are we to tell Mrs Varian what we have learned from the nurse up here?”
“How can we help telling her?”
“But, think, Zizi. Have we a right to divulge Frederick Varian’s secret? After he spent his life keeping it quiet, shall we be justified in blurting it out——”
“Oh, Penny, that’s why Mr Varian and Betty were at odds! She wasn’t his child——”
“She didn’t know that——”
“No; but he did, and it made him irritable and impatient. Oh, don’t you see? He was everlastingly thinking that her traits were not Varian traits nor traits of her mother’s family,—and he couldn’t help thinking of the child’s real mother,—and oh, I can see how altogether he was upset over and over again when Betty would do or say something that he didn’t approve of.”