I've
heard from Dick's lawyer to-day that Shiel is now worth fifty thousand
pounds!"
"Good heavens!" Miss Templeton ejaculated, "and Gladys has bound
herself to Hamar! I suppose," she said afterwards, when John Martin
and she were alone together, "that you would not have any objection to
Shiel now, if Gladys were free to marry him."
"Certainly not!" John Martin said, "certainly not, I always liked
Shiel. A fine manly young fellow, very different to the type one
usually meets nowadays. I only wish Gladys were free!"
"You would raise no obstacle to her becoming engaged to Shiel?"
"None whatsoever! But what's the good of talking about an
impossibility. Gladys is stubbornness itself--when once she has made
up her mind to do a thing, nothing in God's world will make her not do
it."
"Wait," Miss Templeton said, "wait and see. I think I can see a
possible way out of it."
She had learned much from Shiel in his "wanderings." He had constantly
alluded to Hamar, Curtis, Kelson--and Lilian Rosenberg; to the great
compact, and to the one possible way of breaking that compact--namely
through the instigation of a quarrel between the trio. From several of
the statements he had made, Miss Templeton deduced that Kelson was
greatly under the influence of Lilian Rosenberg--and it was from these
statements that she finally received an inspiration.
Miss Templeton saw deeper than Shiel--it had always been her custom to
read between the lines.
Pages:
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341