She stamped her foot, half in anger and half in dismay.
"Good lack, sir, will you not be gone?"
"Not until you fetch me a coal, at all events."
She looked at him, read determination in his face, and with an impatient gesture ran to the cabin door and vanished inside. After a moment she appeared with a brand in her fingers, evidently pulled from the fire inside. Smiling, he took it and set it to his pipe.
"Ah, that is better! Now, Kitty, as to your birth: Do you know anything of your mother?"
He fully expected fresh expostulation from her; instead, she nodded quietly.
"Yes, though I do not conceive your right to question me, sir."
"My right is the interest of a gentleman," he said gravely, and she flushed. "May I ask who your mother was?"
"I—I do not know her name," stammered the girl, helpless wonder in her eyes. "Her initials were H.E.M., but my father never speaks of her."
"You mean, Abel Grigg never speaks of her," corrected Norton. A new anger flashed into the girl's face.