"I Tried Not to Be"

Mrs. Carmichael, warm and practical, takes Sara aside and explains what has happened. Tom Carrisford is Captain Crewe's old school friend — the man who pressed the investment. He did not know, until the speculation came in, that Crewe had already died of the false news. When he discovered it, he searched for the Crewe daughter. He has been searching for two years, funding agents in Paris, in Moscow, in three other cities. She has been next door.

Sara absorbs this. She is not dramatic about it. She asks about Becky. Mrs. Carmichael says Becky will be taken care of. Sara nods. The practical work of the recognition does not take long to settle in her mind; it is the fact of Carrisford's two-year search that she keeps returning to — the proof that someone has been doing his moral work all along, consistently, at personal cost, for a child he had never met.

Miss Minchin arrives and is received by Carrisford's solicitor in the drawing room. The facts are laid out plainly. Miss Minchin attempts to reframe the past year — she has, she suggests, done her best to care for the child in difficult circumstances. The solicitor outlines the legal position. Sara, brought in to speak, is asked how she has been treated. She looks at Miss Minchin for a moment. She says: I tried not to be miserable. This is enough.