"
"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 passion,
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.
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