"oh, yes, mother is alive and well. i wasn’t best pleased, mr. holmes, when she married again so soon after father’s death, and a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. father was a plumber in the tottenham court road, and he left a tidy business behind him, which mother carried on with mr. hardy, the foreman; but when mr. windibank came he made her sell the business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. they got £ 4700 for the goodwill and interest, which wasn’t near as much as father could have got if he had been alive."