Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/185

 died over there, and his widow, my sister-in-law Louisa, came back to England, and here to London, soon after his death bringing with her their only child, this girl we're hearing about. Well, now, why didn't Louisa, Mrs. Matthew Mortover as she was, communicate with her relations? She'd know of the Mortovers, of Mortover Grange, in Derbyshire; she'd also know of her own family, the Patellos. And Patello, Mr. Wedgwood, is, I believe, a very uncommon name—Louisa could easily have traced my husband, her brother. Why didn't she? Why was nothing ever heard of her until this girl comes forward to say what she does—that she's Matthew and Louisa's daughter and that her father and mother are both dead?"

"Can't say!" answered Wedgwood. "No idea, Mrs. Patello. I know nothing about the family secrets. My only concern in this is that it has to do with a much more serious affair—the murder of Mr. John Wraypoole."

Mrs. Patello shook her head.

"Oh, well, of course, Mr. Wedgwood, I know nothing about that!" she said. "Excepting what I've read in the papers. My only concern is about this young woman. I say it's a very strange thing that neither Mortovers nor Patellos had ever heard of her until now. My