Pawle. "For you never know how these little
matters might help. We've established two facts, anyway. One--that there
have never been any folk of the name of Ashton in this town since the
registers came into being in 1567; the other, that the name Avice was a
very favourite one indeed amongst the women of the Cave-Gray family. And
there's just another little fact which I discovered, and said nothing
about while the vicar and clerk were about--it may be nothing, and it may
be something."
"What is it?" asked Viner.
"Well," answered Mr. Pawle pausing a few yards away from the porch of the
hotel, and speaking in a confidential voice, "it's this: In turning up
the records of the Cave-Gray family, as far as they are shown in their
parish registers, I found that Stephen John Cave-Gray, sixth Earl of
Ellingham, married one Georgina Wickham. Now, is that another
coincidence? There you get the two names in combination--Avice Wickham.
That particular Countess of Ellingham would, of course, be the
grandmother of the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared. Did he think of her
maiden name, Wickham, when he wanted a new one for himself? Possibly! And
when he married, and had a daughter, did he think of the Christian name
so popular with his own womenfolk of previous generations, and call his
daughter Avice? And are Marketstoke and Wickham and Ashton all one and
the same man?"
"Upon my word, it's a strange muddle!" exclaimed Viner.
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