Public opinion in the
shape of social ostracism might be brought to bear on them, but that was
as far as coercive measures could go. There was nothing for it but a
conference, with powers to propose liberal terms. As it was, several of
the foreign witnesses had already departed and others had telegraphed
cancelling their hotel arrangements.
The conference, protracted, uncomfortable, and occasionally acrimonious,
succeeded at last in arranging for a resumption of litigation, but it was
a fruitless victory. The Duke, with a touch of his earlier precocity,
died of premature decay a fortnight before the date fixed for the new
trial.
THE ROMANCERS
It was autumn in London, that blessed season between the harshness of
winter and the insincerities of summer; a trustful season when one buys
bulbs and sees to the registration of one's vote, believing perpetually
in spring and a change of Government.
Morton Crosby sat on a bench in a secluded corner of Hyde Park, lazily
enjoying a cigarette and watching the slow grazing promenade of a pair of
snow-geese, the male looking rather like an albino edition of the russet-
hued female. Out of the corner of his eye Crosby also noted with some
interest the hesitating hoverings of a human figure, which had passed and
repassed his seat two or three times at shortening intervals, like a wary
crow about to alight near some possibly edible morsel. Inevitably the
figure came to an anchorage on the bench, within easy talking distance of
its original occupant.
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