“My mother told me. She said that my father was a gentleman, and—that I looked like him. She would not tell me his name, because she had taken an oath never to reveal it to anyone.”
He was watching her face as she spoke, her—eyes cast down. “One question more, Miss Affleck: do you happen to know where your mother was born?”
“She came from Norfolk.”
Mr. Tytherleigh rested an elbow on the table, and thrusting his fingers through his hair, stared down at the note-book in which he had been writing down her answers. “How strange—how very strange!” he remarked. Presently he added, “We must find out where you were baptised, Miss Affleck; you do not know, I suppose?”
She could not tell him, and after some further conversation, and hearing a brief sketch of her life, her visitor rose to go. “Mr. Tytherleigh,” said Fan, “I remember something now I wish to tell you. One day, when I was about twelve years old, I went with mother to a street near Manchester Square, where she had some work, and on the way back to Edgware Road we passed a small curious old-looking church with a churchyard crowded thick with grave-stones. It was a very narrow street, and the grave-stones were close to the pavement, and I stopped to read the words on one. Then mother said, 'That is the church I was married in, Fan, and where you were christened.' But I do not know the name of the church, nor of the street it is in.”
Mr. Tytherleigh took down this information. “I shall soon find it,” he said; and promising to write or see her again in two or three days' time, he left her.
She had not so long to wait. On the next day, after returning from Regent Street, she was called down to see Mr. Tytherleigh once more.
“Miss Affleck,” he said, advancing with a smile to meet her, “I am very glad to be able to tell you that our inquiries have satisfied us that you are the daughter of the Margaret Affleck we advertised for. And I can now add that when we were seeking for your mother, or information of her, our real object was to find you.”
“To find me!” exclaimed Fan, starting up from her seat, a new hope in her heart. “Do you know then who my father is?”
“Was—yes. You have no father living. I did not wish to say too much yesterday, but from the moment I saw you and heard your voice, I was satisfied that I had found the right person.”