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James lad we had a chance to speak"
"Of course," James said "No enerous of you" Edward inclined his head "You’re too good"
And so saying, he slid the newspaper into the inner pocket of his coat--both the Gazette and Free’s proof rolled into one There His priht"
"Good night" But as Edward started to leave, his brother grimaced "Wait"
Edward paused "Yes?"
"Have you separated Shaughnessy from Miss Marshall yet?"
"No," Edward said slowly "I haven’t He’s stubborn" He’d not thought that his careful lies would bear fruit so soon He stood in place, willing his brother to say hed "Can you keep a secret?"
"James" Edward shook his head slowly, patiently "I am a secret Who would I tell?"
"True, true Well In the interest of brotherly rapport, you hnessy is not at the press late to"
"Of course Is there some reason?"
James hesitated, so Edward fed him another lie
"No, no, don’t tell me," he said "I can see there is another reason You’ve done soh to push his brother over the edge "Oh, not so clever," Jaes to build up to this It’s just that tomorrohen they’re supposed to set the fire"
FREE HAD BEEN BURIED under a veritable onslaught of telegrams--seventy-three by four that afternoon--and the courier on his cycle brought more every hour
That number didn’t count the notices that would come in the mails After the exposé that had been printed in the London Review thisand echoed in papers around the country by noon, advertisers throughout England had been desperate to sever their ties with her Subscribers would no doubt follow suit
Free had left the headlined paper out on the front table, a reminder of what she needed to accomplish by the end of the day
WOMEN’S FREE PRESS FOUND COPYING COLUMNS FROM OTHERS
"Your response won’t hold up" A, and she was exa Free’s hastily hand-scrawled defense "This piece sounds like the thinnest of excuses I wouldn’t believe it myself if I hadn’t watched you write those columns"
"Mr Clark has proof," Free said
Amanda snorted in response "Mr Clark is not here Convenient for hi that someone--and while we suspect who it is, we cannot prove it, and so we dare not name him--has taken our work early, but we are not sure how This unknown person has done this in order to discredit us for some unknown reason The story is so thin that it would rouse the suspicions of even our most faithful adherents We can’t print this We’re better off printing nothing at all"
Free folded her ar a bare denial is the best option" It had been her choice to wait until she had proof before proceeding; this debacle hat resulted