"Will you tell me the maiden name of your wife?"
"I never had a wife."
This announcement brought St. Mark to his feet, and his usually placid features exhibited the wildest excitement. "Never married! But your daughter--"
"Only daughter by adoption, shipmate. She is no blood relation to me, though I love her as dearly as any father could."
"But her father--her mother?"
"I don't know who either of them are, I can only suspect."
"Don't you know their names?"
"I never did."
"This is remarkable!" and the features of the usually quiet man betrayed the greatest excitement. "Where did you find her and when?"
"I found her at sea when she was a baby, too young to speak or remember anything of herself."