Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/273

 else! Why do you always want to make trouble? It's months since I saw her. Have I behaved like a man who is unhappy because some young woman has gone away? Haven't I made love to you all the time?" He had—almost. He had behaved like a young man who was still on his honeymoon. "But if anything has happened to John, I've got to go. And nothing that you can say or do will stop me."

And something had happened to John. Nobody was ever to know just what. The Albacore had vanished into the seas together with her officers and her crew.

Edward's distress became so poignant that Anne no longer had the heart to quarrel with him or find fault with him. And she even urged him to do the thing that he wished to do. There was money enough for his journey and to keep Anne during his absence, and there was more money owing which he would be able to collect in New York. And, more valuable still, he would be able to make personal connections with his editors and to arrange for the future.

The day before his departure, Anne and Edward went to the cathedral of Notre Dame and burned a candle for his safe voyage. She made him swear that he would come back to her. He did not need to swear that. His heart would bring him. She