"It has been," the landlady replied, "but he is better now. It all
came through his not taking proper care of himself."
"May I see him, do you think?" Lilian Rosenberg inquired.
"I don't know," the landlady grumbled. "He's in a very touchy mood--no
one can do nothing right for him. But maybe there won't be any harm in
your trying," she added, her eyes wandering to the half-crown in
Lilian Rosenberg's fingers.
She opened the door somewhat wider, and Lilian Rosenberg entered.
Shiel was immensely surprised to see her. Illness and solitude had
very considerably subdued him, and though at first he showed some
resentment, he speedily softened under her sympathetic solicitation
for his health. She put his 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.
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