“Well?” she said, looking at him very anxiously. The game of “mother” can gain an extraordinary fascination in a very few days.
“I have found out one thing,” said Barnabas, “that is a curious coincidence at all events. The child’s real name is Philippa.”
“Ah,” said Miss Mason slowly.
“I went to different studios,” went on Barnabas, “but the artists knew nothing beyond the fact that the child had lived with Madame Barbin. Then I went to the houses she had tenanted. The neighbours told me she was a kind old soul, and two of them at least averred that they remembered the advent of Pippa to the house when a baby of a few weeks old. They declare that an English lady brought her to Madame Barbin, and that Madame Barbin received money for the child’s keep. Madame Fournier was a relation of Madame Barbin’s—a niece, they believed. They did not know where her home was beyond that it was somewhere in Brittany. She came occasionally to visit Madame Barbin, and was with her when she died. Their theory is that Madame Fournier took possession of the child in order to receive the allowance made for her. It was sent to Madame Barbin, and she returned a receipt and statement that the child was alive and well. That, at least, is the neighbour’s story. But they had no notion from whom the money came. The people who sent it must certainly have trusted Madame Barbin implicitly. According to the neighbours, she deserved the trust. Madame Fournier no doubt took on the job and abandoned the child as soon as she could conveniently do so. To receive the money without having to provide for the child has evidently appealed to her mind as a method of procedure more advantageous to herself.”
Barnabas stopped.
“And how did you find out that the child’s real name was Philippa?” asked Miss Mason.
“A woman named Madame Paulet volunteered the information,” said Barnabas. “She told me that Madame Barbin had said that the child had first been christened Philippa according to the rites of the English Church. But being a devout Catholic, Madame Barbin evidently didn’t trust to an English baptism. She had the child re-baptized. I saw the priest who performed the ceremony. She was then, he said, about two months old. Madame Barbin had told him that she did not know the name of the child’s parents. She received money quarterly for her maintenance. She did tell him the name of the woman who sent it, but as it was told under the seal of confession he couldn’t have given it to me even if he had remembered it. But he had forgotten.”
There was a short silence.
“Then,” said Mason slowly, “Pippa is a Catholic.”
“Yes,” said Barnabas. “You are sorry?”