`Yes. What interest have you in me, or in her? How do you come to know anything about my daughter?'
`In this way. I met her on the night when she escaped from the Asylum, and I assisted her in reaching a place of safety.'
`You did very wrong.'
`I am sorry to hear her mother say so.'
`Her mother does say so. How do you know she is dead?'
`I am not at liberty to say how I know it-but I do know it.'
`Are you at liberty to say how you found out my address?'
`Certainly. I got your address from Mrs Clements.'
`Mrs Clements is a foolish woman. Did she tell you to come here?'
`She did not.'
`Then, I ask you again, why did you come?'
As she was determined to have her answer, I gave it to her in the plainest possible form.
`I came,' I said, `because I thought Anne Catherick's mother might have some natural interest in knowing whether she was alive or dead.'
`Just so,' said Mrs Catherick, with additional self-possession. `Had you no other motive?'
I hesitated. The right answer to that question was not easy to find at a moment's notice.
`If you have no other motive,' she went on, deliberately taking off her slate-coloured mittens, and rolling them up, `I have only to thank you for your visit, and to say that I will not detain you here any longer. Your information would be more satisfactory if you were willing to explain how you became possessed of it. However, it justifies me, I suppose, in going into mourning. There is not much alteration necessary in my dress, as you see. When I have changed my mittens, I shall be all in black.'
She searched in the pocket of her gown, drew out a pair of black lace mittens, put them on with the stoniest and steadiest composure, and then quietly crossed her hands in her lap.
`I wish you good morning,' she said.
The cool contempt of her manner irritated me into directly avowing that the purpose of my visit had not been answered yet.
`I have another motive in coming here,' I said.
`Ah! I thought so,' remarked Mrs Catherick.
`Your daughter's death --'
`What did she die of?'
`Of disease of the heart.'
`Yes. Go on.'