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WHAT WILL
PEOPLE SAY?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
A NOVEL
BY
RUPERT HUGHES
ILLUSTRATED
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
MCMXIV
COPYRIGHT, 1914. BY HARPER & BROTHERS
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PUBLISHED APRIL, 1914
ILLUSTRATIONS
WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY?
CHAPTER I
FIFTH AVENUE at flood-tide was a boiling surf ofautomobiles. But at nearly every corner a policemansucceeded where King Canute had failed, and checkedthe sea or let it pass with a nod or a jerk of thumb.
The young army officer just home-come from thePhilippines felt that he was in a sense a policeman himself,for he had spent his last few years keeping savagetribes in outward peace. When he was away or asleepthe Moros rioted at will. And so the traffic-officer of thisother extreme of civilization kept these motor-Moros inorderly array only so long as he kept them in sight.
One glare from under his vizor brought the millionaire'slimousine to a sharp stop, or sent it shivering backinto position. But once the vista ahead was free of uniformsall the clutches leaped to the high; life and limbwere gaily jeopardized, and the most appalling risks runwith ecstasy.
The law of New York streets and roads forbids a carto commit at any time a higher speed than thirty miles anhour; and never a man that owns one but would blushto confess it incapable of breaking that law.
As Lieutenant Forbes watched the surge of automobiles[Pg 2]from t