“How can that be,” said Edmund?
“I don’t know how,” said Joseph; “but there is a person who can tell if she will; I mean Margery Twyford, who calls herself your mother.”
“You meet my thoughts,” said Edmund; “I had resolved, before you spoke, to visit her, and to interrogate her on the subject; I will ask my Lord’s permission to go this very day.”
“That is right,” said Oswald; “but be cautious and prudent in your enquiries.”
“If you,” said Edmund, “would bear me company, I should do better; she might think herself obliged to answer your questions; and, being less interested in the event, you would be more discreet in your interrogations.”
“That I will most readily,” said he; “and I will ask my lord’s permission for us both.”
“This point is well determined,” said Joseph; “I am impatien
