I have never seen a woman whose face impressed me so much at first sight as the face of your friend, Miss Nowell." "I am very sorry for that." "But why, Belle ?" "Because the girl is a nobody--less than nobody.

There is an unpleasant kind of mystery about her birth." "How is that?
Her uncle, Captain Sedgewick, seems to be a gentleman." "Captain Sedgewick is very well, but he is not her uncle; he adopted her when she was a very little girl." "But who are her people, and how did she fall into his hands ?" "I have never heard that.

He is not very fond of talking about the subject.

When we first came to know them, he told us that Marian was only his adopted niece; and he has never told us any more than that." "She is the daughter of some friend, I suppose.

They seem very much attached to each other." "Yes, she is very fond of him, and he of her.