There was an emphatic silence, and then Lilian Rosenberg spoke. "Have I ever heard you mention her?" "Occasionally," Shiel replied. There was silence again. Then Lilian Rosenberg said slowly--

"You surely don't mean Gladys Martin! I can think of no one else." "I do mean her!" Shiel replied, dropping his eyes. "She is to be
coerced into marrying Hamar." "The silly fool!" Lilian Rosenberg said. "I would like to see any one
trying to coerce me. And it is to serve _her_ you want me to sacrifice
myself." And she turned away in disgust. After this interview, Lilian studiously avoided Shiel; and despairing,
at length, of ever winning her over, Shiel reported his failure to
H.V. Sevenning. "We must subpoena her," said Sevenning. "You'll never get her to speak that way," Shiel said. "If once she has
made up her mind not to do a thing, nothing will ever compel her." "I have heard that said of people before," H.V. Sevenning replied
dryly, "but it's wonderful what the witness-box can do; it loosens the
most mulish tongues in a marvellous manner." "It wouldn't hers," Shiel maintained. H.V. Sevenning, however, thought he knew best--what lawyer doesn't? Moreover, it was all part of the game--the great game of becoming
notorious at all costs. He served the subpoena. Like most modern girls, Lilian Rosenberg was wholly selfish; and for
this fault only her parents were to blame. She had been brought up
with the one idea of pleasing herself, of saying and doing exactly
what she thought fit; and no one had ever thwarted her. Now, however,
the unforeseen had happened. She was smitten with the grand passion,
and confronted for the first time in her life with the startling
proposition of "self-sacrifice." She loved Shiel. She wouldn't marry
him for the very simple reason he had no money--but that only added
poignancy to the situation. She loved him all the more. She knew Shiel
loved Gladys Martin. Whether he could ever marry Gladys was another
matter--but he loved her all the same. And the proposition, that had
been so abruptly thrust upon Lilian Rosenberg, was that she should
sacrifice herself, not only to save Gladys Martin from marrying Hamar,
but to pave the way for Shiel, supposing Gladys could reconcile
herself to penury, to marry her himself. In other words she had been
called upon to give up what was, at the moment, dearest to her in the
world, and to court all the inconveniences and worries of being thrown
out of employment--for if she gave evidence that would in any way tend
to damage the firm of Hamar, Curtis & Kelson, she would undoubtedly
lose her post and, in all probability, never get another--at least not
another as good--for the sake of a woman whom she did not know, but,
nevertheless, hated. Yet there was in her, as there is in almost every girl, however up to
date, a chord that responded to the heroic. A short time back she
would have scoffed at the very thought of self-sacrifice; but now, she
actually caught herself considering it. She kept on considering it,
too, until the trial was well advanced, and had practically made up
her mind to denounce the trio and go to the wall herself, when the
subpoena was served. CHAPTER XXV

CURTIS IN A NEW RÔLE


In an instant, Lilian Rosenberg had decided the course she would
adopt. "What a disgusting thing to do," she indignantly exclaimed. "I
wouldn't have believed it of Shiel. The idea of forcing me to give
evidence--of forcing me to save the situation for the sake of the
woman he thinks he loves! I shan't do it!" And she proved as good as her word. Apart from her importance as a
witness, considerable interest attached to her on account of her
appearance--she was infinitely more attractive than any of the women
who had hitherto appeared in the witness-box--though many of them were
so-called Society beauties. "You were wrong," was the look which Shiel read in H.V. Sevenning's
eyes, as Lilian Rosenberg took the oath. "She is on our side." But simple as Shiel was in many ways, he knew women better than the
lawyer, and the exceedingly sweet expression Lilian Rosenberg had
assumed, and which he knew to be quite foreign to her, filled him with
misgivings. Nor was he mistaken. The evidence she gave was entirely in
favour of the trio. The case for the prosecution was concluded. For the defence, Gerald
Kirby, K.C., resorted to satire. He characterized the whole
proceedings as the most absurd heard in any Court for the past two
centuries, and wondered, only, that it had been possible to procure a
counsel for such a ridiculous prosecution. "Even though," he remarked, "spirits such as have been specified by
the prosecution do exist--which is extremely dubious--there has never
yet been produced any reliable corroborative evidence respecting them,
and the Prosecution has wholly failed to prove, that it is through the
medium of these spirits, that the Modern Sorcery Company have worked
their spells. The marvellous feats that we have all seen performed in
Cockspur Street have been accomplished--as the defendants have all
along stated--through will--sheer will power and nothing else; and I
intend producing evidence to show that the secret of the wonderful
efficacy of all the charms and spells sold by the Sorcery Company,
lies in will power also. Whenever they have been consulted with regard
to the purchasing of a spell, the Firm have invariably pointed out
this fact to the purchasers, carefully explaining at the same time
that the rings, lockets and other articles sold to them were merely to
assist them in concentration. It is ridiculous to suppose that such
trivial articles could have produced, of themselves, such calamities
as the witnesses for the prosecution attributed to them. But, of
course you did not believe the statements of such witnesses. How could
you? How could you expect anything but falsehood from women who, upon
cross-examination, had owned that their object in obtaining the spells
was a far more dangerous object than they had at first led you to
suppose. They sought spells that would do evil, and that evil was not
accomplished. Now, I ask you, if the Firm worked their spells through
the instrumentality of evil spirits--for it is assuredly only evil
spirits that are associated with Sorcery--would not the spells they
sold naturally have brought about the sinister results for which they
were required? Undoubtedly they would! And they failed to produce the
desired effect, simply because their efficacy depended, not on spirit
agency, but on human will power; which power one could only too
plainly see the society ladies--who had witnessed for the
prosecution--did not possess. "It may be asked, why the defendants, if they do not accomplish their
spells through black magic, style themselves 'The Sorcery Company'--and
so mislead the public? Obviously they do so purely for advertisement.