"I don"t much like the idea of it," Shiel said, "but I suppose the end justifies the means."
"Of course it does!" Sevenning retorted. "It"s your only chance of saving Miss Martin."
Acting on this suggestion, Shiel approached Lilian Rosenberg on the subject.
"What about the spells?" he asked her. "Have you found out yet how Hamar works them?"
"I have only heard him muttering in his room again," she said, her cheeks paling. "And--you will only laugh at me--I have seen queer shadows hovering in his doorway and stealing down the pa.s.sages, shadows that have terrified me. I never knew what real fear was before I came to c.o.c.kspur Street, and for the past few weeks I have been almost too afraid to open my room door, for fear I should see something standing outside."
"You have no doubt, I suppose, in your own mind, that the trio practise sorcery?"
"I certainly think they are helped in all they do by evil spirits."
"Do you approve of such proceedings?"
"I don"t think them right. I don"t think we have any right to pry into the Unknown. Some day, undoubtedly, it will be given us to know, but until that day comes, we had far better leave it alone."
"If you think like that," Shiel said, "how can you reconcile yourself to working for these people?"
"How can I help myself?" Lilian Rosenberg answered. "Beggars can"t be choosers. I am not responsible for what they do."
"But supposing you knew they were about to commit a very heinous crime, wouldn"t you feel it your duty to try and circ.u.mvent them?"
"That depends," Lilian Rosenberg said. "If I could stop them without running any risk of losing my post, then I would probably try to stop them, but if stopping them meant being "sacked," I most certainly shouldn"t. It isn"t so easy to get posts nowadays--especially good paying posts like this. What do you take me for, a fool!"
"Then you don"t believe in self-sacrifice, even for a friend?" Shiel said slowly.
"That depends on the degree of friendship," Lilian replied. "If it were for some one I liked very much, then--perhaps!"
"Is there any one you like very much! I, somehow, couldn"t fancy you being very fond of any one."
"Couldn"t you?" Lilian said, with a faint laugh. "You don"t think me capable of any deep affection. You forget, perhaps, that a woman doesn"t always wear her heart on her sleeve."
"I confess I don"t understand women," Shiel said, "and I had best come to the point at once. I happen to know that the trio--or at least one of the trio--is contemplating doing something ultra-abominable--a cruel and shameful wrong, which I particularly wish to prevent. But I may not be able to do anything without your help! Will you help me?"
"How _can_ I?" Lilian asked.
"Why, by finding out something which might be d.a.m.ning evidence against them, or by stating your opinion in Court. There is only one way of staying the trio from doing this dastardly thing, and that is by getting this case, which is now being tried, to go against them."
"Well, and supposing, by some chance, the defendants should win! What would become of me?"
"Ah! that is where your self-sacrifice would come in! It would be a n.o.ble action."
"How does this wrong, you say they are about to perpetrate, touch on you personally?"
"It touches on some one with whom I am personally acquainted."
"Some one you like?"
"Yes!"
"A relation?"
"That I can"t say."
"Then I can"t help you. I am naturally inquisitive; curiosity is, as you know, a woman"s privilege. You must tell me all."
"It"s for a friend, then!"
"A man?"
"No," Shiel replied, "for a girl!"
There was an emphatic silence, and then Lilian Rosenberg spoke.
"Have I ever heard you mention her?"
"Occasionally," Shiel replied.
There was silence again. Then Lilian Rosenberg said slowly--
"You surely don"t mean Gladys Martin! I can think of no one else."
"I do mean her!" Shiel replied, dropping his eyes. "She is to be coerced into marrying Hamar."
"The silly fool!" Lilian Rosenberg said. "I would like to see any one trying to coerce me. And it is to serve _her_ you want me to sacrifice myself." And she turned away in disgust.
After this interview, Lilian studiously avoided Shiel; and despairing, at length, of ever winning her over, Shiel reported his failure to H.V. Sevenning.
"We must subpoena her," said Sevenning.
"You"ll never get her to speak that way," Shiel said. "If once she has made up her mind not to do a thing, nothing will ever compel her."
"I have heard that said of people before," H.V. Sevenning replied dryly, "but it"s wonderful what the witness-box can do; it loosens the most mulish tongues in a marvellous manner."
"It wouldn"t hers," Shiel maintained.
H.V. Sevenning, however, thought he knew best--what lawyer doesn"t?
Moreover, it was all part of the game--the great game of becoming notorious at all costs. He served the subpoena.
Like most modern girls, Lilian Rosenberg was wholly selfish; and for this fault only her parents were to blame. She had been brought up with the one idea of pleasing herself, of saying and doing exactly what she thought fit; and no one had ever thwarted her. Now, however, the unforeseen had happened. She was smitten with the grand pa.s.sion, and confronted for the first time in her life with the startling proposition of "self-sacrifice." She loved Shiel. She wouldn"t marry him for the very simple reason he had no money--but that only added poignancy to the situation. She loved him all the more. She knew Shiel loved Gladys Martin. Whether he could ever marry Gladys was another matter--but he loved her all the same. And the proposition, that had been so abruptly thrust upon Lilian Rosenberg, was that she should sacrifice herself, not only to save Gladys Martin from marrying Hamar, but to pave the way for Shiel, supposing Gladys could reconcile herself to penury, to marry her himself. In other words she had been called upon to give up what was, at the moment, dearest to her in the world, and to court all the inconveniences and worries of being thrown out of employment--for if she gave evidence that would in any way tend to damage the firm of Hamar, Curtis & Kelson, she would undoubtedly lose her post and, in all probability, never get another--at least not another as good--for the sake of a woman whom she did not know, but, nevertheless, hated.
Yet there was in her, as there is in almost every girl, however up to date, a chord that responded to the heroic. A short time back she would have scoffed at the very thought of self-sacrifice; but now, she actually caught herself considering it. She kept on considering it, too, until the trial was well advanced, and had practically made up her mind to denounce the trio and go to the wall herself, when the subpoena was served.
CHAPTER XXV