Valentine rather approved of the scandal than not, because it was likely to lead inquisitive people in the wrong direction.

He might have been now perfectly easy about the preservation of his secret, but for the distrust which still clung to him, in spite of himself, on the subject of Mrs.Peckover's discretion.
He never wearied of warning that excellent woman to be careful in keeping the important secret, every time she came to London to see Madonna.

Whether she only paid them a visit for the day, and then went away again; or whether she spent her Christmas with them, Valentine's greeting always ended nervously with the same distrustful question:--"Excuse me for asking, Mrs.Peckover, but are you quite sure you have kept what you know about little Mary and her mother, and dates and places and all that, properly hidden from prying people, since you were here last ?" At which point Mrs.Peckover generally answered by repeating, always with the same sarcastic emphasis:--"Properly hidden, did you say, sir?
Of course I keep what I know properly hidden, for of course I can hold my tongue.

In my time, sir, it used always to take two parties to play at a game of Hide and Seek.

Who in the world is seeking after little Mary, I should like to know ?" Perhaps Mrs.Peckover's view of the case was the right one; or, perhaps, the extraordinary discretion observed by the persons who were in the secret of Madonna's history, prevented any disclosure of the girl's origin from reaching her father or friends--presuming them to be still alive and anxiously looking for her.