She adored William from that moment on.

William adored Matthew's father the moment - they met; he reminded him in so many ways of his own father and he begged Charles Lester to let him see the great bank of which he was chairman. Charles Lester thought carefully about the request. No child had been allowed to enter the orderly precincts of Broad Street before, not even his own son. He compromised, as bankers often do, and showed the boy around the Wall Street building on a Sunday afternoon.

William was fascinated to see the different offices, the vaults, the foreign exchange dealing room, the board room and the chairman's office.

Compared with Kane and Cabot, the Lester bank was consider - ably more extensive, and William knew from his own small personal investment account, which provided him with a copy of the annual general report, that they had a far larger capital base than Kane and Cabot. William was silent, pensive, as they were driven home in the car.

'Well, William, did you enjoy your visit to my bank?' asked Charles Lester genially.

'Oh, yes, sir,' replied William. 'I certainly did enjoy it.' William paused for a moment and then added, 'I intend to be chairman of your bank one day, Mr. Lester.'

Charles Lester laughed, and dined out on the story of how young William Kane had reacted to Lester and Co., which in turn made those who heard it laugh too.

Only William had not meant the remark as a joke.

Anne was shocked when Henry came back to her for more money.

'It's as safe as a house,' he assured her. 'Ask Alan Lloyd. As chairatan of the bank he can only have your best interests at heart: 93ut two hundred and fifty thousandF Anne queried.

'A superb opportunity, my dear. Look upon it as an investment that will be worth double that amount within two years: After another more prolonged row, Anne gave in once again and life returned to the same smooth routine. When she checked her investment portfolio with the bank, Anne found she was down to one hundred and forty thousand dollars, but Henry seemed to be seeing all the right people and clinching all the right deals. She considered discussing the whole problem with Alan Lloyd at Kane and Cabot, but in the end dismissed the idea; it would have meant displaying distrust in the husband whom she wished the world to respect, and surely Henry would not have made the suggestion at all had he not been sure that the loan would have met with Alan's approval, Anne also started seeing Doctor MacKenzie again to find out if there was any hope of her having another baby, but he still advised against the idea. With the high blood pressure that had caused her earlier misscarriage, Andrew MacKenzie did not consider thirty - five a good age for Anne to start thinking about being a mother again. Anne raised the idea with the grandmothers, but they agreed wholeheartedly with the views of the good doctor. Neither of them cared for Henry very much, and they cared even less for the thought of an* Osborne offspring making claims on the Kane family fortube after they were gone. Anne began to resign herself to the fact that William was going to be her only child. Henry became very angry about what he described as her betrayal, and told Anne that if Richard were still alive, she would have tried again. How different the two men were, she thought, and couldn't account for why she had loved them both. She tried to soothe Henry, praying that his business projects would work out well and keep him fully occupied. He certainly had taken to working very late at the office.

It was on a Monday in October, the weekend after they had celebrated their second wedding anniversary, that Anne started receiving the letters from an unsigned 'friend', informing her that Henry could be seen escorting other women around Boston, and one lady in particular whom the writer didn't care to name. To begin with Anne burned the letters immediately and although they worried her, she never discussed them with Henry, praying that each letter would be the last. She couldn't ev= summon up the courage to raise the matter with Henry when he asked her for the last hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

'I am going to lose the whole deal if I don't have that money right now, Anne.'

'But it's all I have, Henry. If I give you that amount, I'll be left with nothing.'

'This house alone must be worth over two hundred thousand. You could mortgage it tomorrow.'

'The house belongs to William.'

'William, William, William. It's always William who gets in the way of my success,' shouted Henry as he stormed out.

He returned home after midnight, contrite, and told her he would rather she kept her money and that he went under, for at least they would still have each other. Anne was comforted by his words and later they made love. She signed a cheque for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars the next morning, trying to forget that it would leave her penniless until Henry pulled off the deal he was pursuing. She couldn't help wondering if it was more than a coincidence that Henry had asked for the exact amount that remained of her inheritance.