Ida continued her way, a good deal troubled by the encounter.
Her call on the lady in question resulted in a success that she could not have hoped for.
In fact, she secured information which was complete, and was only confirmed, not added to, by those whom she subsequently visited.
And in this information were revelations of which Nick had not dreamed.
From this woman, who was familiar with the history of the family, Ida learned that Blanche and Ethel were twin daughters of an old actor and actress; that the father had died when the girls were about twelve years of age, and that the mother, after continuing on the stage for some two years thereafter, had married again and left the stage.
The man she had married was a superior mechanic, who had invested his savings in the purchase of a saloon, which quickly became a sporting haunt; he was a widower, with a son aged about eighteen years at the time of his father’s marriage.
When his father engaged in the liquor business he had taken the son into the store, who, under the influences, grew to be rather sporty in his tastes and practices.
As the two girls developed they did not get along well with their stepfather, and Blanche, the more spirited of the two, left her home when eighteen to become an actress.
Ethel, however, who had neither a taste nor an aptitude for the stage, remained at home, enduring an unpleasant life.
After Blanche had made what was considered to be a wealthy marriage, the conditions at the Romney home were utterly changed.