“It implies yes or no, as it may be,” replied Edward Forster, smiling.
“I never heard any one say it before, papa. You’re not angry with me, sir?” continued Amber, turning round to John Forster.
“No, not angry, little girl; but I’m too busy to talk to you—or indeed with you, brother Edward. Have you any thing more to say?”
“Nothing, my dear brother, if I have your promise.”
“Well, you have it; but what am I to do with her, God only knows! I wish you had kept better hours. You mentioned some clothes which might identify her to her relations; pray let me have them, for I shall have the greatest pleasure in restoring her to them, as soon as possible, after she is once in my hands.”
“Here they are, brother,” replied Edward, taking a small packet from his coat-pocket: “you had better take charge of them now; and may God bless you for having relieved my mind from so heavy a load!”
“Humph! by taking it on my own shoulders,” muttered John, as he walked to the iron safe, to deposit the packet of linen; then returning to the table, “Have you any thing more to say, brother?”
“Only to ask you where I may find my brother Nicholas?”
“That I can’t tell; my nephew told me somewhere down the river; but, it’s a long way from here to the Nore. Nephew’s a fine lad; I sent him off to the East Indies.”
“I am sorry then that I have no chance of seeing him:—but you are busy, brother?”