"
"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.
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