With a sigh, he put these thoughts aside and discovered that the gentleman was still talking.

“… It is a most edifying tale and demonstrates to perfection all those qualities for which I am especially famed; namely self-sacrifice, devoted friendship, nobility of purpose, perceptiveness, ingenuity and courageousness.”

“I beg your pardon, sir?”

“The story of my finding your name, Stephen, which I am now going to relate! Know then that your mother died in the hold of a ship, the Penlaw,³ that was sailing from Jamaica to Liverpool. And then,” he added in a matter-of-fact tone, “the English sailors stripped her body and flung it into the sea.”

“Ah!” breathed Stephen.

“Now, as you may imagine, this made the task of recovering your name extremely difficult. After thirty or forty years, all that was left of your mother was four things: her screams in childbirth, which had sunk into the planks of the ship; her bones, which was all that was left of her, once the flesh and softer parts had been devoured by fishes …”

“Ah!” exclaimed Stephen again.

“… her gown of rose-coloured cotton which had passed into the possession of a sailor; and a kiss which the captain of the ship had stolen from her, two days earlier. Now,” said the gentleman (who was clearly enjoying himself immensely), “you will observe with what cleverness and finesse I traced the passage of each part of her through the world, until I was able to recover them and so divine your glorious name! The Penlaw sailed on to Liverpool where the wicked grandfather of Lady Pole’s wicked husband disembarked with his servant – who carried your own infant person in his arms. On the Penlaw’s next voyage, which was to Leith in Scotland, it met with a storm and was wrecked. Various spars and bits of broken hull were cast up upon the rocky shore, including the planks that contained your mother’s screams. These were taken by a very poor man to make a roof and walls for his house. I found the house very easily. It stood upon a windy promontory, overlooking a stormy sea. Inside, several generations of the poor man’s family were living in the utmost poverty and degradation. Now, you should know, Stephen, that wood has a stubborn, proud nature; it does not readily tell what it knows – even to its friends. It is always easier to deal with the ashes of the wood, rather than wood itself. So I burnt the poor man’s house to the ground, placed the ashes in a bottle and continued on my way.”

“Burnt, sir! I hope no one was hurt!”

“Well, some people were. The strong, young men were able to run out of the conflagration in time, but the older, enfeebled members of the family, the women and infants were all burnt to death.”

“Oh!”

“Next I traced the history of her bones. I believe I mentioned before that she was cast into the ocean where, due to the movement of the waters and the importunate interference of the fishes, the body became bones, the bones became dust, and the dust was very soon transformed by a bed of oysters into several handfuls of the most beautiful pearls. In time the pearls were harvested and sold to a jeweller in Paris, who created a necklace of five perfect strands. This he sold to a beautiful French Comtesse. Seven years later the Comtesse was guillotined and her jewels, gowns and personal possessions became the property of a Revolutionary official. This wicked man was, until quite recently, the mayor of a small town in the Loire valley. Late at night he would wait until all his servants had gone to bed and then, in the privacy of his bed-chamber, he would put on the Comtesse’s jewels and gowns and other finery and parade up and down in front of a large mirror. Here I found him one night, looking, I may say, very ridiculous. I strangled him upon the spot – using the pearl necklace.”