153

CHAPTER XXI 161

CHAPTER XXII 169

CHAPTER XXIII 177

CHAPTER XXIV 185

CHAPTER XXV 193

CHAPTER XXVI 201

CHAPTER XXVII 209

CHAPTER XXVIII 217

CHAPTER XXIX 225

CHAPTER XXX 233

CHAPTER XXXI 241

CHAPTER XXXII 249

CHAPTER XXXIII 256

CHAPTER XXXIV 264

CHAPTER XXXV 272

CHAPTER XXXVI 280

CHAPTER XXXVII 288

CHAPTER XXXVIII 296

CHAPTER XXXIX 304

CHAPTER XL 312

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Nothing daunted, the pair made a rush
at Berrington, who fired right and
left" _Frontispiece_

"Richford stood there shaking and quivering
with passion" _Page_ 49

"The police-officer looked suspiciously at
the figure" " 107

THE SLAVE OF SILENCE

CHAPTER I

The girl turned away from the splendour of it and laid her aching head
against the cool windowpane. A hansom flashed along in the street below
with just a glimpse of a pretty laughing girl in it with a man by her
side. From another part of the _Royal Palace Hotel_ came sounds of mirth
and gaiety. All the world seemed to be happy, to-night, perhaps to mock
the misery of the girl with her head against the windowpane.

And yet on the face of it, Beatrice Darryll's lines seemed to have
fallen in pleasant places. She was young and healthy, and, in the eyes
of her friends, beautiful. Still, the startling pallor of her face was
in vivid contrast with the dead black dress she wore, a dress against
which her white arms and throat stood out like ivory on a back-ground of
ebony and silver. There was no colour about the girl at all, save for
the warm, ripe tone of her hair and the deep, steadfast blue of her
eyes. Though her face was cold and scornful, she would not have given
the spectator the impression of coldness, only utter weariness and a
tiredness of life at the early age of twenty-two.

Behind her was a table laid out for a score of dinner guests. Everything
was absolutely perfect and exceedingly costly, as appertained to all
things at the _Royal Palace Hotel_, where the head waiter condescended
to bow to nothing under a mi