The carriage passes by Dr. Graham's humble home. She has a secret: only the rag-picker who rummaged through the bin across the road twenty years ago knows it.
"Trashed her, Doctor! A split-lip too!" the rag-picker had said, "The girl's heartless mother was unable, or unwilling, to own up."
The doctor had taken the newborn in, seen her through infancy, performed a minor surgery, guided her through school and college – she'd been more than a mother.
The princess rises and, teary-eyed, bows to her.