me--what a pity! But they must
remember it. I'll set their wits at work. Your sister! Why, this is
like a story."

"It is better than that; it means life and hope to me. Oh, if I am
deceiving myself!" sighed the lady. "That is what has made me hesitate
about speaking to you--I was so afraid it was only my imagination, and I
could not bear to think of disappointment. But the more I study the
writing the surer I am. Every time I look at that envelope I feel surer
and safer! You don't know how it braces me to bear with Duncan's
strangeness."

"Why 'strangeness'? I thought we had agreed that his letters have simply
been lost, and, if he is in India, he will be as glad to see you as you
him, didn't we?"

"Oh, if I could be certain of that!"

"I shouldn't allow myself to think anything else."

"It is so easy to talk when it is not our own trouble!"

The captain smiled patiently.

"Did you keep that envelope?"

"Yes. Faith didn't seem to notice."

"That is right. And I'll think it over. We can mail a letter at
Ismailia, but no answer could reach you until we get to Bombay. I
suppose we might wire, but we only stop, there--dear me! I keep
forgetting we have no address except Debby's, and she would go all to
pieces over a telegram. Do you know whether Clara's still single?"

"No, I don't."

"Sort of a wild-goose chase, at the best! It will have to be a letter, I
guess."

"How a small difficulty looms into a fate in a case like this! I must
cling to this clue, though, till convinced it is a false one; I cannot
give it up so lightly."

"Of course not. And I'll think up something--trust me. Why don't you
write yourself, Anna? Make it a note that would mean something to Clara,
and nothing to others, and I'll send it to Debby, putting in a line
myself. That will be best, and then we need not say anything to the
girls, as you are so anxious to keep it all from them."

She bent her head in meditation.

"I was, at first, because I did not know them; now I do not so much care.
They are lovely girls, my friend, and so sensible! There comes Hope
now--I recognize her laugh. Well, help me in this, and you will but
forge another link in the long chain of favors I owe you. Good-night!"

"None o' that, now! I don't keep a log-book on little kindnesses--just
pass 'em along down the line, say I. And don't you give up the ship, my
lady! That's good sailor-like advice! Good-night to you, and good lu