“Mebby, then, you are from Kentucky?”
No answer.
“Be you from Kentucky?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know Mr. Graham’s folks?”
“Yes,” said Durward, trembling lest the next should be something concerning his stepfather—but it was not.
Settling himself a little further back in the chair, Joel continued: “Wall, I calkerlate that I’m some relation to Miss Graham. Be you ’quainted with her?”
Durward knew that a relationship with Mrs. Graham also implied a relationship with himself, and feeling a little curious as well as somewhat amused, he replied, “Related to Mrs. Graham! Pray how?”
“Why, you see,” said Joel, “that my grandmarm’s aunt—she was younger than grandmarm, and was her aunt tew. Wall, she went off to Virginia to teach music, and so married a nabob—know what that is, I s’pose; she had one gal and died, and this gal was never heard from until I took it into my head to look her up, and I’ve found out that she was Lucy Temple. She married an Englishman, first—then a man from South Carolina, who is now livin’ in Kentucky, between Versailles and Frankfort.”
“What was your grandmother’s aunt’s name?” asked Durward.