as dr townsend perused these scribbled recollections he perceived that the french in which they were written was far beyond the level of expertise which ten-year-old stuart had attained he also began to realize that the child 's memories were all of paris , and of paris in the 18405 , as direct references to operas and plays and modes of transportation clearly showed it emerged from these written documents that antoinette fielding had been of english-french parentage , that her frenchman father had not married her english mother louisa fielding and that she had lived a strange and reclusive life in paris , the pampered daughter of a high-class prostitute who sought to protect her only child from the filth of the streets her great gift and consolation was her music .