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 protect you. We could be married and you could come to France to live. And although Anne would be terribly furious at first, why, in the end I could make her understand. She wouldn't let me see you—ever—I don't suppose. But you'd be my wife, and the baby would have a chance—and I'd help: you in every way that I possibly could. Now there's the only sane practical way that there is out of this mess."

Alice wept very bitterly. She wept, she said, because Edward was so noble. But when he had put her in her carriage, there was a twinkle of hope in her woeful eyes. And they had arranged to be married.

Of course it was the memory of what John had done that inspired Edward to do the same for another lady in distress. He had thought only about the noble aspect of John's conduct—never about the foolish one. But he did realize now that he had made his own life, which ought to have been simple, direct and carefree, about as complicated as possible. He acknowledged freely to himself that he was a hopeless idiot. And there were certain aspects of this affair which were much too awful to think about at all.

Could he keep his marriage to Alice a secret from Anne? His own people would have to know