Very likely one of the parents only was dead?
But no; it couldn't be, since Fyne had said just before that "there was really no one" to communicate with.

No one! And then remembering Mrs.Fyne's snappy "Practically" my thoughts fastened upon that lady as a more tangible object of speculation.
I wondered--and wondering I doubted--whether she really understood herself the theory she had propounded to me.

Everything may be said--indeed ought to be said--providing we know how to say it.

She probably did not.

She was not intelligent enough for that.