Edwards, to whose ears the story had never come. But the present was
not a time for general inquiries. It sufficed that she saw the main
point, the persuasive power of beauty over mankind.
"It may be that you had better go," she said. "If you fail I will go
myself to my husband, and meantime I shall be in prayer, that this cup
may pass from us."
Hastily the girl gathered her beautiful disheveled hair into a ribbon
behind, removed the traces of tears from her wild and terror-stricken
eyes, and not stopping even for her hat, in her fear that she might be
too late, left the house and made her way through the throng before
the Fennell house. At sight of her pallid cheeks and set lips, the
ribald jeer died on the lips even of the drunken, and the people made
way for her in silence. It was not that they had ever liked her, or
now sympathized with her. She had always held herself too daintily
aloof from speech or contact with them for that, but they guessed her
errand, and had a certain rude sense of the pathos of such a
humiliation for the haughty Desire Edwards.
CHAPTER NINETEENTH
PEREZ GETS HIS TITLE
As Desire entered the headquarters room, which Parson West had barely
left, Perez was sitting at a table with his back to the door.
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