At dinner-time Rose solved his doubt.
"Aunt says, sir, do you mind my waitin' on you?"
"I do not mind it in the very least."
"It's beginning to be a trouble to Aunt now to get up-stairs."
"I wouldn't dream of troubling your aunt."
Her aunt? Mrs. Eldred was not her mother. Ah, but you could take after your aunt.
He found that this question absorbed him more than was becoming. He determined to settle it.
"Are you going to stay here, then?" he asked, with guile.
"Yes, sir. I've come back to live with Uncle."
"Have you always lived here?"