A Bride of a Summer's Day by Catherine Louisa Pirkis

"It's a puzzle, Clive, from first to last. I feel as if we were trying to reason the matter out from an insufficient statement of facts. Come, have you nothing more to tell me?"

So spoke Joshua Redway, and then, leaning back in his chair, with eyes steadily fixed on his son's face, he awaited Clive's reply.