do you mean?" asked Brent.

"Odd ideas, sir, very odd!" replied Peppermore. "Wanted to find out from
me, Mr. Brent, if, in case she's called up again at this inquest
business, or if circumstances arise which necessitate police proceedings
at which she might be a witness, her name couldn't be suppressed? Ever
hear such a proposal, sir, to make to a journalist? 'Impossible, my dear
madam!' says I. 'Publicity, ma'am,' I says, 'is--well, it's the very
salt of life, as you might term it,' I says. 'When gentlemen of our
profession report public affairs we keep nothing back,' I says; firmly,
sir. 'I very much object to my name figuring in these proceedings,' she
says. 'I object very strongly indeed!' 'Can't help it, ma'am,' says I.
'If the highest in the land was called into a witness-box, and I
reported the case,' I says, 'I should have to give the name! It's the
glory of our profession, Mrs. Saumarez.' I says, 'just as it's that of
the law, that we don't countenance hole-and-corner business. The light
of day, ma'am, the light of day! that's the idea, Mrs. Saumarez!' I
says. 'Let the clear, unclouded radiance of high noon, ma'am, shine
on'--but you know what I mean, Mr. Brent. As I said to her, the
publicity that's attendant on all this sort of thing in England is one
of the very finest of our national institutions.

"Odd, sir, but, for a woman that's supposed to be modern and
progressive, she didn't agree. 'I don't want to see my name in the
papers in connection with this affair, Mr. Peppermore,' she declared
again. 'I thought, perhaps,' she says, rather coaxingly, 'that you could
suggest some way of keeping it out if there are any further
proceedings.' 'Can't, ma'am!' says I. 'If such an eventuality comes to
be, it'll be my duty to record faithfully and fully in the _Monitor_
whatever takes place.' 'Oh,' says she. 'But it's not the _Monitor_ that
I so much object to--it's the London papers. I understand that you
supply the reports to them, Mr. Peppermore.' Well, of course, as you
know, Mr. Brent, I am district correspondent for two of the big London
agencies, but I had to explain to her that in a sensational case like
this the London papers generally sent down men of their own: there were,
for instance, two or three London reporters present the other day.

"Yes, she said; so she'd heard, and she'd got all the London papers to
see if her name was mentioned, and had been relieved to find that it
hadn't: there were nothing