declares she will
take me to Japan or some frightful place and keep me there until I
forget you. I don't care if they take me to the ends of the earth, I
shall NEVER forget you. I will never--never--NEVER give you up. And you
mustn't give me up, will you, darling? They say I must never write you
again. But you see I have--and I shall. Oh, what SHALL we do? I was SO
happy and now I am so miserable. Write me the minute you get this, but
oh, I KNOW they won't let me see your letters and then I shall die. But
write, write just the same, every day. Oh what SHALL we do?

Yours, always and always, no matter what everyone does or says, lovingly
and devotedly,

MADELINE.

When the reading was finished Albert sat silently staring at the floor,
seeing it through a wet mist. Captain Zelotes watched him, his heavy
brows drawn together and the smoke wreaths from his pipe curling slowly
upward toward the office ceiling. At length he said:

"Well, Al, I had a letter, too. I presume likely it came from the same
port even if not from the same member of the family. It's about you,
and I think you'd better read it, maybe. I'll read it to you, if you'd
rather."

Albert shook his head and held out his hand for the second letter. His
grandfather gave it to him, saying as he did so: "I'd like to have you
understand, Al, that I don't necessarily believe all that she says about
you in this thing."

"Thanks, Grandfather," mechanically.

"All right, boy."

The second letter was, as he had surmised, from Mrs. Fosdick. It had
evidently been written at top speed and at a mental temperature well
above the boiling point. Mrs. Fosdick addressed Captain Zelotes Snow
because she had been given to understand that he was the nearest
relative, or guardian, or whatever it was, of the person concerning whom
the letter was written and therefore, it was presumed, might be expected
to have some measure of control over that person's actions. The person
was, of course, one Albert Speranza, and Mrs. Fosdick proceeded to set
forth her version of his conduct in sentences which might almost have
blistered the paper. Taking advantage of her trust in her daughter's
good sense and ability to take care of herself--which trust it
appeared had been in a measure misplaced--he, the Speranza person, had
sneakingly, underhandedly and in a despicably clandestine fashion--the
lady's temper had rather gotten away from her here--succeeded in meeting
her daughter in vari