‘Then by all means let her remain,’ said the captain.
‘Her memory,’ continued Mrs. Lee, ‘may return at any time. Suppose, then, that she should tell you her home is not in England, and that she has no friends there. How glad you will be that you kept her.’
Again the captain gravely smiled. ‘What are your ideas as to her past, Mrs. Lee?’
‘I have no ideas whatever on the subject.’
‘But you do not doubt that she is English?’
‘No, I do not doubt that she is English,’ said Mrs. Lee, ‘but though she be English still she may have no residence, and even no friends in England.’
‘Granting her to be an English woman,’ said the captain, ‘where would you have her live?’
‘Anywhere in Europe—anywhere in America—anywhere in the world, Captain Ladmore,’ answered Mrs. Lee.
‘But here is a lady,’ said the captain, ‘found in an open boat, not very far south of the mouth of the English Channel. Now what more reasonable to suppose than that the lady was blown away from an English port?’
‘Why not from a French port?’ said Mrs. Lee.