"Was Donetti her married name?"
"I have every reason to believe it was an assumed name. I firmly believe she eloped with some man of high family, even though he may not have been a nobleman, but I believe he was a nobleman."
"You say Madam Donetti was a handsome young lady?"
"Very handsome—a beautiful woman and refined, also highly educated. There was a mystery about her while she was acting as my governess."
"Governess to whom—yourself?"
"No, an older sister of Alice."
"She was a Frenchwoman?"
"I always believed so, but as she assumed the name of Donetti it is possible she may have been Italian, or her parents may have been Italian people."
"She spoke Italian?"
"She did indeed. She spoke all the continental languages, also English, and her son is a splendid linguist."