She paused from stitching at the cotton bags to look straight at Grim.
"His mother is old Scharnhoff's housekeeper," Grim answered.
"Scharnhoff wouldn't stand for the boy, and drove him out.

The mother liked Scharnhoff's flesh-pots better than the prospects of the streets, so she stayed on, swiping stuff from Scharnhoff's larder now and then to slip to the kid through the back door.
But he was starving when I found him." Mrs.Davey laid her sewing down.
"D'you mean to tell me that that old butter-wouldn't-melt-in- his-mouth professor is that child's father ?" "No.

The father was a Turkish soldier--went away with the Turkish retreat.

If he's alive he's probably with Mustapha Kemal in Anatolia.

Old Scharnhoff used to keep a regular harem under the Turks.