’Yes, I have.  There’s no reason why I shouldn’t tell you that I’m trying to find any of my kin that are still alive, There was a married son of mine that once lived somewhere about here.  His name was Joseph James Snowdon.  When I last heard of him, he was working at a ’lectroplater’s in Clerkenwell.  That was thirteen years ago.  I deal openly with you; I shall thank you if you’ll do the like with me.’

’See, will you just come in?  I’ve got a few friends in the front-room; there’s been a death in the ‘ouse, an’ there’s sickness, an’ we’re out of order a bit, I’ll ask you to come downstairs.’

It was late in the afternoon, and though lights were not yet required in the upper rooms, the kitchen would have been all but dark save for the fire.  Mrs. Peckover lit a lamp and bade her visitor be seated.  Then she re-examined his face, his attire, his hands.  Everything about him told of a life spent in mechanical labour.  His speech was that of an untaught man, yet differed greatly from the tongue prevailing in Clerkenwell; he was probably not a Londoner by birth, and—­a point of more moment—­he expressed himself in the tone of one who is habitually thoughtful, who, if the aid of books has been denied to him, still has won from life the kind of knowledge which develops character.  Mrs. Peckover had small experience of faces which bear the stamp of simple sincerity.  This man’s countenance put her out.  As a matter of course, he wished to overreach her in some way, but he was obviously very deep indeed.  And then she found it so difficult to guess his purposes.  How would he proceed if she gave him details of Jane’s history, admitting that she was the child of Joseph James Snowdon?  What, again, had he been told by the people of whom he had made inquiries?  She needed time to review her position.

‘As I was sayin’,’ she resumed, poking the fire, ’I’ve been a mother to her these six years or more, an’ I feel I done the right thing by her.  She was left on my ’ands by them as promised to pay for her keep; an’ a few months, I may say a few weeks, was all as ever I got.  Another woman would a sent the child to the ’Ouse; but that’s always the way with me; I’m always actin’ against my own interesses.’

‘You say that her parents went away and left her?’ asked the old man, knitting his brows.

’Her father did.  Her mother, she died in this very ‘ouse, an’ she was buried from it.  He gave her a respectable burial, I’ll say that much for him.  An’ I shouldn’t have allowed anything but one as was respectable to leave this ‘ouse; I’d sooner a paid money out o’ my own pocket.  That’s always the way with me.  Mr. Willis, he’s my undertaker; you’ll find him at Number 17 Green Passage He buried my ’usband; though that wasn’t from the Close; but I never knew a job turned out more respectable.  He was ’ere to-day; we’ve only just buried my ‘usband’s mother.  That’s why I ain’t quite myself—­see?’