r, you would save the life of a man--I am
quite sure, you care a very great deal for."

CHAPTER XXIX

THE END AND "THE BEYOND"

It took Lilian Rosenberg some time to make up her mind.

"It's extraordinary," she said to herself, "how fond I am of Shiel. I
used to think it an impossibility for me to be really fond of
anyone.... The question is, however, am I sufficiently in love with
him, to give him up to that soft little cat--Gladys Martin! If it
weren't for this illness--if I could only persuade myself that he
isn't as ill as Miss Whatever-her-name-is--said, I shouldn't think
twice--I should let things be--but as I feel sure he is really
ill--dangerously ill--and the only chance of his recovery lies in the
possibility of his marrying Martin--I must deliberate. Shall I or
shall I not? If it were any other woman I shouldn't so much
mind--but--Gladys Martin! I can't endure her. There is one hope,
however, namely--that if he marries her, he will soon tire of
her--and--and come to me. What a tremendous score off her that would
be! But, no! I wouldn't do that! Because--because--well there--just
like my infernal luck--I love him. Could I marry him, I wonder, even
if there were no Gladys Martin? It is doubtful! Yet I believe I could.
But what is the good of conceiving impossibilities! There is a Gladys
Martin--and--I can never have Shiel. The only question I have to
settle is--Shall she have him? Shall I marry Kelson so that Martin can
marry Shiel?"

Lilian Rosenberg turned this question over in her mind for a whole day
and night, sometimes arriving at one decision, sometimes at another.
In the end--very elaborately dressed, and looking daintier than she
had ever done in her life, she waylaid Kelson and asked him to have
tea with her.

Any pretty face, accentuated by all the allurements of a large
mushroom hat and hobble skirt, was enough for Kelson; but when that
face belonged to the one girl for whom, above all other girls, he had
a colossal weakness, he simply could not feast his eyes enough on it.

"Have tea with you? Of course I will," he said. "But we must be
careful. Hamar is about. If you walk on up the Haymarket, I'll follow
in a taxi, and pick you up, directly I get to a safe distance."

"I see you are as much in awe of Mr. Hamar as ever," Lilian Rosenberg
laughed. "I'm not! I've found him out--he's all talk. But do as you
will--get your taxi and I'll walk on--we'll have tea in my new flat."

Kels