“Her father, you mean?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You are not a resident of New York?”

“No. I am an Englishwoman. My home is Birmingham. The last five years I have searched the world over with no success, till, by accident, I found the child’s father here in New York to-day.[{47}]”

“He knows you are here?”

“Yes,” reluctantly.

“Is a reconciliation with him impossible?”

“It is—now.”

Nick began to fear that he understood the meaning of that last word, “now.”

“You say ‘now.’ Were you willing to be reconciled until recently?”