say," remarked Mr. Pawle. "Perhaps they don't live in London. I'll
advertise for both. But now, here's another matter. I asked these people
if they could tell me anything about Wickham, the father of this girl to
whom Ashton's left his very considerable fortune. Well, you see, they
can't. Now, it's a very curious thing, but Miss Wickham has no papers,
has, in fact, nothing whatever to prove her identity. Nor have I. Ashton
left nothing of that sort. I know no more, and she knows no more, than
what he told both of us--that her father died when she was a mere child,
her mother already being dead, that the father left her in Ashton's
guardianship, and that Ashton, after sending her here to school,
eventually came and took her to live with him. There isn't a single
document really to show who she is, who her father was, or anything about
her family."

"Is that very important?" asked Viner.

"It's decidedly odd!" said Mr. Pawle. "This affair seems to be getting
more mysterious than ever."

"What's to be done next?" inquired Viner.

"Well, the newspapers are always very good about that," answered the
solicitor. "I'm getting them to insert paragraphs asking the two men,
Fosdick and Stephens, to come forward and tell us if they've seen
anything of Ashton since he came to England; I'm also asking if anybody
can tell us where Ashton was when he went away from home on that visit
that Mrs. Killenhall spoke of. If--"

Just then a clerk came into Mr. Pawle's room, and bending down to him,
whispered a few words which evidently occasioned him great surprise.