"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 subpœna 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.