"I am so worried." Cora is as pale as her white night dress and she looks the way he feels.

"Yes. I don't believe it. I telephone Rosamund, she has no idea where Edith is, but she knows quite a lot of people in London. She might be able to find out something. I have the feeling that we have overlooked something and I wish I knew what it was." Cora and he have both sat down on their bed and she grabs his hand.

"Do you sometimes have the feeling that we've lost all three of our girls? Not just Sybil, but the other two as well? Mary has turned into an unbearably arrogant snob and Edith, well." He lets go of Cora's hand and puts his arm around her shoulders instead.

"I know what you mean. But they are adults. They are both older than thirty. We have no right to know anything about their private lives. Although I agree with you concerning Mary. And I will have words with her. 33 years old she may be, but she is not above behaving like a lady. And I'll ask Tom to talk to her too. If she doesn't listen to me, she might listen to him." Cora puts her head on his shoulder and sighs.

"Thank you darling." He pulls her closer to him and puts his other arm around her too and then he lets her cry on his shoulder. And despite the gravity of the situation, despite Edith having run off, despite Cora's and his disappointment in Mary, despite the reasons that make Cora cry like this, it also makes him very happy to have her cling like that to him, to feel her holding on to him, to have the feeling that he might be able to help her. He will question his mother. Rosamund told him to talk to their mother. She wouldn't say why, but he'll question her. He just doesn't know whether he should tell Cora and take her with him or whether he should do it on his own.

"Robert?"

"Yes darling?"

"If you know anything, anything at all, if Rosamund has told you something that might help in any way, please tell me. Promise me. Don't keep things from me because you want to protect me. Promise me, Robert, please."

"Alright, love, I promise." And so he tells her what Rosamund said. And asks her to come with him. He asks her for help and she tells him that she will help. They fall asleep holding onto each other.