"My uncle, as I understood him, had several motives for writing to the major.

One of them was to inquire if he knew your mother's address." Eustace suddenly stood still.
I paused at the same moment, feeling that I could venture no further without the risk of offending him.
To speak the truth, his conduct, when he first mentioned our engagement to my uncle, had been (so far as appearances went) a little flighty and strange.

The vicar had naturally questioned him about his family.

He had answered that his father was dead; and he had consented, though not very readily, to announce his contemplated marriage to his mother.

Informing us that she too lived in the country, he had gone to see her, without more particularly mentioning her address.