Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/272

 due and that nothing had been heard of her. The Albacore was John's new ship, and Edward was so startled that his heart almost stopped beating. . . But then of course nothing could happen to John. John was an institution. He was the first institution in the family. But at the end' of a few hours Edward was so worried that he got Anne's permission—he always had to have that—to cross the river and visit the office of the Herald.

The Albacore was still missing.

Edward returned to Anne and told her all of his anxieties. He told her about John being married and having a child—but without any reference to James—and he said that he didn't know what was going to become of them if anything happened to John.

"And Anne, darling," he said, "if anything has happened to John, you'll just have to let me go back to New York to help straighten things out. And I ought to see my father, who is sick. I've got to go. You see that, don't you?"

But Anne, when she wished, could see more than the truth in any statement.

"You wish to go to New York," she said, "so that you can save that Alice from your brother James—so that you can save her for yourself."

"You know that I love you, and not anybody