Who and what Kegworthy had been neither Paul nor any inhabitant of Bludston knew.

Once the boy inquired, and she broke a worn frying-pan over his head.

Kegworthy, whoever he might have been, was wrapt in mystery.

She had appeared in the town when Paul was a year old, giving herself out as a widow.

That she was by no means destitute was obvious from the fact that she at once rented the house in Budge Street, took in lodgers, and lived at her ease.