“I say again what’s all that to me?” she exclaimed.
“Well, but hadn’t the dead boy any relatives on his father’s side?” asked Spargo. “I know you’re his aunt on the mother’s side, and as you’re indifferent perhaps, I can find some on the other side. It’s very easy to find all these things out, you know.”
Miss Baylis, who had begun to stalk back to the house in gloomy and majestic fashion, and had let Spargo see plainly that this part of the interview was distasteful to her, suddenly paused in her stride and glared at the young journalist.
“Easy to find all these things out?” she repeated.
Spargo caught, or fancied he caught, a note of anxiety in her tone. He was quick to turn his fancy to practical purpose.
“Oh, easy enough!” he said. “I could find out all about Maitland’s family through that boy. Quite, quite easily!”
Miss Baylis had stopped now, and stood glaring at him. “How?” she demanded.
“I’ll tell you,” said Spargo with cheerful alacrity. “It is, of course, the easiest thing in the world to trace all about his short life. I suppose I can find the register of his birth at Market Milcaster, and you, of course, will tell me where he died. By the by, when did he die, Miss Baylis?”
But Miss Baylis was going on again to the house.
“I shall tell you nothing more,” she said angrily. “I’ve told you too much already, and I believe all you’re here for is to get some news for your paper. But I will, at any rate tell you this—when Maitland went to prison his child would have been defenceless but for me; he’d have had to go to the workhouse but for me; he hadn’t a single relation in the world but me, on either father’s or mother’s side. And even at my age, old woman as I am, I’d rather beg my bread in the street, I’d rather starve and die, than touch a penny piece that had come from John Maitland! That’s all.”