ked at me again in his nervous way. Lit a
cigarette and contemplated the smoke.

"'Born at sea, on a ship,' he repeated. 'Her mother came from somewhere
up the Adriatic coast, Loreto, if I remember rightly. A lady's maid. She
and her mistress joined the mail-boat at Port Said. They had been living
at Cairo. On the voyage she died in giving birth to a child. There was
some trouble, which I never fathomed, about the mistress, the Honourable
Mrs. James. She did not know her maid was married when she engaged her
at Venice. Letters were found in her pockets from a Sergeant Cairola.
Just about this time the Italian Army was severely defeated in
Abyssinia, and as far as could be ascertained the sergeant, who had
married the girl at Ancona on the very point of embarking, was killed.
Mrs. James was not in a condition, nor was she, I imagine, of a
temperament to interest herself in the case. The girl, of course, was
buried at sea, several days before we arrived here. As the vessel was
British, the disposal of an Italian child was complicated. Not born on
Italian soil, she was not eligible for the state institutions for
orphans. I really forget the details. I had to make a declaration, of
course, being the surgeon, but the captain and purser saw the
authorities. On our return voyage we learned that they had found foster
parents for the child, who received a grant out of the pension due to
the widow had she lived. Since then, on only one occasion, a very
painful one for me, I may say, have I had anything to do with the case.'

"So that I was really no forrader than before, you see. Rosa herself had
told me about all of importance that was known. She had been a baby at
Rebecca's, then a little girl and then a big girl. And the story, though
Rosa had no part in it, the story spread. I had seen around the corner,
and there were so many things I wanted to know! Things I had no right to
know, come to that, if I was a gentleman. No right to ask anyway. I got
up to go.

"'Thank you, doctor,' I said. 'I suppose I'll have to be satisfied with
what you've given me. It won't make any difference to us, I'm glad to
say. But I should have thought you would have been interested in the
case, even if Mrs. James wasn't.' He shrugged his shoulders and moved
his papers about, plainly anxious for me to be gone.

"'Remember, I did not settle here until some time had elapsed. I should
have forgotten the whole affair but for the occasion I spoke of.'