The Golden Silence

the interview to the newspaper reporter. It might be what she herself would call a "fake." But as for her coming to sto

ated to think that it was exactly like her to take it. He hated to be

the famous interview in his pocket. If not there, it was only because the paper would not fit in. The footman had certainly read the interview, and followed the "Northmorland Case" with passionate interest, for

a hundred per cent. in case of success. Probably the expressionless youth was inwardly reviling the Northmorland family because he had lost his money and would be obliged to carry silver trays all

phen had expected. Miss Lorenzi was in the Palm Co

but it was harder than eve

tle tables and palms, toward a corner where a young woman in black crape sat on a pink sofa. Her hat was very large, and a palm with enormou

," a man who knew all about the great case

aughed, as one does laugh at other people's troubles,

g Lord Northmorland's brother, whom he had never succ

o her, now he has proposed. He must be awfully sick about the

he's let himself in for it. Every one blames him now for having anything

n wou

. But all his popularity won't make the women who li

idn't let her alone. The Duchess of Amidon told Lady Peggy Lynch-whom I know a little-that immediately after Lorenzi committed suicide, this Margot girl wrote to Stephen Knight and implored him to help h

t didn't see it in

them. His brother and he are as different from one another as light is from darkness. Stephen gives away a lot of money, and Lady Peggy says that nobody ever asks him for anything in vain. He can't stand seeing people unhappy, if he can do anything to help. Probably, after

He must be n

fter thirty. Lady Peggy's new name for

I heard. Stephen the First was a martyr to

ogy. "He will be stoned, too, if he tries to force Miss Lorenzi on his fam

n't shudder at her accent. And she's certainly one o

right expression. Gorg

nd fell to talking a

when all the failings and eccentricities of the family had been reviewed before the public eye, like a succession of cinematograph pictures. It did not occur to Stephen that he was an object of pity, but he felt that through

the pink sofa. She gazed up at him with immense, yellowish brown eyes, then fluttered her long black

her contralto voice, which would have been charming bu

ed, trying not to speak sharply, and keeping his tone low. "Only, for Heaven's sake, Margot, don't call me

cue, and saved me from following my father-came into my life as if you'd been a modern St. George. Calling you my 'White

have stopped in your sitting-room-I suppose you have one-and le

ould have been too extravagant," return

t lodgings for the Carlton Hotel, because if he once began, he knew that he would be carried on to unsafe depths.

d Stephen. "The first thing is, what to do with this

very beautiful. "You mustn't do anything to him. But-of course it was only

You oughtn't to h

ing people know you've asked me to

e as her eyelash play, when seen for the first time, as Stephen

of the sort. Oh, Margot, if you don't

ything as my father did," murmured the young woman, in

te woman, and perhaps in a moment of madness she might carry out her threat. He had done a great deal to save her life-or, as he thought, to save it. After going so far

to hurt you," he said when

rview could do you, or me, or any one. It lets all the world know how gloriously you've made up to me for the loss of the case, and the loss of my

he did credit to her training. She had been preparing for the stage in Canada, the country of the Lorenzis' adoption, before he

id aloud. "And when you wished our engagement to be announced i

rview, or will soon," retorted Margot. "It appeared only yesterday morning, and was copied in all the evening paper

thinking of the heading in big black print at the top of the interview: "Romantic Climax to the Northmorland-Lorenzi Case.

eporter, must be making my poor father happy in another world. Me, because I have won You, far more than because some day I shall have gained all th

rget it. I should have called here yesterday, as I wired in answer to your telegram saying you

too why you went to Cumberland. Now tell me. Confession's good for the soul. Didn't your broth

important business. I found your telegram, forwarded from my flat, when I got to

k there's any harm in a girl of my age being alone in a hotel? I

mant's daughter was twenty-nine (exactly Stephen Knight's age); but Margot ig

't you comfortable with Mrs. Middleton? She seemed a miraculously ni

future wife to go on living in stuffy lodgings. And as you've insisted on my accepting an income of eighty pounds a month till we're married, I'm able to afford a little luxury, dearest

lip. "I see,"

nd had reluctantly encountered her photograph several times before he had given up looking at illustrated papers for fear of what he might find in them. But Margot's tragic beauty, as presented by photographers, or as seen from a distance, loyally seated at the claimant's side, was as nothing to the dark splendour of her despair wh

hen had impulsively rushed off to South Kensington at once, without stopping to think whether it would not be better to send a r

e and there; and in the course of their talk a great coil had fallen down over her shoulders. It was the sort of thing that happens to the heroine of a melodrama, if she has plenty of hair; but Stephen did no

ather had died, because it seemed the only thing to do, when suddenly the thought of Stephen had flashed into her mind, as if sent there by her guardian angel. She had heard that he was good and charitable to everybody, and once she h

sudden tingle of the blood at the touch of such lips as Margot Lorenzi's. Never had she seemed so beautiful to him since that first day; but he had called again and again, against his brother's urgent advice (when he had con

the lodgings she hated; and he wished to heaven that

miss the subject of the hotel, as he had dismissed the subject of the interview. "That's the reason I wired. B

llenly. And indeed there was no news of his Cumberlan

clearness of a camellia petal. But she had been putting on rather more than usual since her father's death, because it was suitable as well as becoming to be pa

to receive me, when we'r

her feelings. "Northmorland and I have never been great pals, you know. He'

out the bush. I hate them both. Lord North

nothing of the sort. He's a curious mixture.

uritan, at hear

one ever accused me o

side of you, as you show it to me. You're

o be a Puritan. But Stephen shrugge

she wouldn't hang on to her duchess-hood after marrying again. It would be goo

f a woman, no matter how beautiful. And he wondered with a sickening heaviness of heart how he was to go on with the wretched

on't you?" he said, in

med. "I hate your brothe

dfather, and upheld his own rights, when Mr

eved they were his, or he wouldn't have crossed the ocean and spen

believed in his "rights." And as for the money he had spent in trying to establish a legal claim to the Northmorla

on was decid

my horrid temper better in hand, and I'd never make you look so cross. But I inherited my emotional nature from Margherita Lorenzi, I suppose. What can you expect of a girl who had an Italian prima donna for a grandmother? And I oughtn't to quarrel with the fair Margherita for

e one of the handsomest women who ever

d. "You real

be two opinions

ful, don't let your brother and h

an't sp

me from being a success in the

ly country, anyhow. I've been thinking that when-by

y find his mother's letters that she'd tried to tell him about when she was dying, perhaps he might make a legal claim to a title and a fortune. He used to turn to me and say: 'Maybe you'll be a great lady when

, please,

ound up in my success here. And I could have a success. You know I could. I am beautiful. I h

e shall have to get on without any help from my brother and sister-in-law, and perhaps without a good many other people you might like to have for friends. It may seem hard

The right people.

of our names just now. Things may change some day.

ver. "That brings me to what I had to tell you. It's this:

as not sure that he wanted a reprieve. He thought, the sooner the plunge was

thing at all. I ought to stay with some of my old friends while I'm still Margot Lorenzi. A lot of people were awfully good to father, and I must show my gratitude. T

please her, but probably more to disguise the fact that he had no impatient

ther. What a stupid way of putting it! But it would bore you dreadfully to take such a journey, and it would be nicer anyhow to be married in England-perhaps at St. George's. That used to be my dream, when I was a romantic little girl, and lo

ourse I'm not going to change my mind,"

you won't let your brother and th

ir talking to me at all," Stephen answer