They're a close-mouthed lot, nuns.

But I frightened them.

Told them it was a property matter, and unless they answered my questions privately they'd have to answer them in court.

Then they came through." "Well ?" Spaulding lit his cigar and handed the match to Ruyler, who ground it under his heel.
"Just about nineteen years ago a Frenchwoman, giving her name as Madame Dubois, arrived one day with a child a year old and asked the nuns to take care of it, promising a fancy payment.

The child had been on a farm with a wet-nurse (French style), but Madame Dubois wanted it to learn from the first to speak proper English and French, and to live in a refined atmosphere generally from the time it was able to take notice.
She said she was on the stage and had to travel, so was not able to give the kid the attention it should have, and the doctor had told her that traveling was bad for kids that age, anyhow.