"I don't much like the idea of it," Shiel said, "but I suppose the end justifies the means."
"Of course it does!" Sevenning retorted. "It's your only chance of saving Miss Martin."
Acting on this suggestion, Shiel approached Lilian Rosenberg on the subject.
"What about the spells?" he asked her. "Have you found out yet how Hamar works them?"
"I have only heard him muttering in his room again," she said, her cheeks paling. "And--you will only laugh at me--I have seen queer shadows hovering in his doorway and stealing down the passages, shadows that have terrified me. I never knew what real fear was before I came to Cockspur Street, and for the past few weeks I have been almost too afraid to open my room door, for fear I should see something standing outside."
"You have no doubt, I suppose, in your own mind, that the trio practise sorcery?"
"I certainly think they are helped in all they do by evil spirits."
"I don't think them right. I don't think we have any right to pry into the Unknown. Some day, undoubtedly, it will be given us to know, but until that day comes, we had far better leave it alone."
"If you think like that," Shiel said, "how can you reconcile yourself to working for these people?"
"How can I help myself?" Lilian Rosenberg answered. "Beggars can't be choosers. I am not responsible for what they do."
"But supposing you knew they were about to commit a very heinous crime, wouldn't you feel it your duty to try and circumvent them?"
"That depends," Lilian Rosenberg said. "If I could stop them without running any risk of losing my post, then I would probably try to stop them, but if stopping them meant being 'sacked,' I most certainly shouldn't. It isn't so easy to get posts nowadays--especially good paying posts like this. What do you take me for, a fool!"
"Then you don't believe in self-sacrifice, even for a friend?" Shiel said slowly.
"That depends on the degree of friendship," Lilian replied. "If it were for some one I liked very much, then--perhaps!"
"Is there any one you like very much! I, somehow, couldn't fancy you being very fond of any one."
"Couldn't you?" Lilian said, with a faint laugh. "You don't think me capable of any deep affection. You forget, perhaps, that a woman doesn't always wear her heart on her sleeve."