"No, I never had."
"But you have other relatives—uncles, aunts, cousins?"
"No, Miss Danton—none that I have ever seen."
"What an isolated little thing you are! Have you lived in Montreal all your life?"
"Oh, no! I have only been in Montreal a few months. I was born and brought up in New York."
"In New York!" repeated Kate, surprised. And then there was a pause. When had Doctor Danton been in New York? For the last four years he had been in Germany; from Germany he had come direct to Canada, so Grace had told her; where, then, had he known this New York girl?
"Why did you come to Montreal?" asked Kate.
There was a nervous contraction around the girl's mouth, and something seemed to fade out of her face—not color, for she had none—but it darkened with something like sudden anguish.
"I had a friend," she said hastily, "a friend I lost; I heard I might find that—that friend in Montreal, and so—"
Her voice died away, and she put up one trembling hand to shade her face. Kate came over and touched the hand lying on her black dress, caressingly. She forgot her pride, as she often forgot it in her womanly pity.