is room straight and dusted the furniture,
got tea for him, and when she had completely won him over by these
kindly actions, and made him beg her pardon for ever having spoken
harshly to her, she broached the subject all the while uppermost in
her mind--the subject of Hamar and Gladys.

"He hasn't the slightest intention of marrying her," she said. "All he
wants is to make her his mistress, so as to be able to throw her over
the moment he gets tired of her, and then marry some one of title. He
is tremendously taken with her of course--her physical beauty, which
he had the impudence to tell me surpassed that of any other woman he
had seen, appeals strongly to his grossly sensual nature. If she won't
give in to him now, she will be obliged to do so in six months' time."

"I don't understand you," Shiel said feebly; "why in six months'
time?"

Lilian Rosenberg then told him what she knew about the compact.

"So you see," she added, "that if the final stage is reached no woman
will be safe--the trio will have any girl they fancy entirely at their
mercy."

"How inconceivably awful!" Shiel exclaimed. "Surely there is some way
of stopping them."

"There is only one way," Lilian said slowly, "the union between the
three must be broken--they must quarrel, and dissolve partnership."

"You may be sure they will take good care not to do that."

"Don't be too sure," Lilian Rosenberg replied. "Matthew Kelson is very
fond of me. With a little persuasion he would do anything I asked."

"Then do you think you could bring about a rupture between him and
Hamar!" Shiel asked eagerly.

"I might!"

"And you will--you will save Gladys Martin after all!"

Lilian did not reply at once.

"Do you think she is the sort of girl who would marry poverty," she
said, evasively, "poverty like this!" and she glanced round the room.

"I won't ask her to!" Shiel exclaimed. "Whilst I have been lying in
bed, ill, I have thought of many things--and have come to the
conclusion I have no right ever to think of marrying. It is difficult
for me to earn enough to keep one person in comfort--and I've lost all
hope of ever earning enough to keep two."

"Well, if you don't ask her," Lilian Rosenberg said, "there's one
thing, she will never ask you. And I think you are remarkably well out
of it. If you do ever marry, marry a girl that has grit--a girl that
would be a real 'pal' to you--a girl that would help you to win fame!"

CHAPTER XXVIII